title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: The spill area hosts 8,332 species, including more than 1,270 fish, 604 polychaetes, 218 birds, 1,456 mollusks, 1,503 crustaceans, 4 sea turtles and 29 marine mammals. Between May and June 2010, the spill waters contained 40 times more polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) than before the spill. PAHs are often linked to oil spills and include carcinogens and chemicals that pose various health risks to humans and marine life. The PAHs were most concentrated near the Louisiana Coast, but levels also jumped 2–3 fold in areas off Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. PAHs can harm marine species directly and microbes used to consume the oil can reduce marine oxygen levels. The oil contained approximately 40% methane by weight, compared to about 5% found in typical oil deposits. Methane can potentially suffocate marine life and create "dead zones" where oxygen is depleted.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: A 2014 study of the effects of the oil spill on bluefin tuna funded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Stanford University, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium and published in the journal "Science", found that the toxins from oil spills can cause irregular heartbeats leading to cardiac arrest. Calling the vicinity of the spill "one of the most productive ocean ecosystems in the world", the study found that even at very low concentrations "PAH cardiotoxicity was potentially a common form of injury among a broad range of species in the vicinity of the oil." Another peer-reviewed study, released in March 2014 and conducted by 17 scientists from the United States and Australia and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that tuna and amberjack that were exposed to oil from the spill developed deformities of the heart and other organs that would be expected to be fatal or at least life-shortening.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: The scientists said that their findings would most likely apply to other large predator fish and "even to humans, whose developing hearts are in many ways similar." BP responded that the concentrations of oil in the study were a level rarely seen in the Gulf, but "The New York Times" reported that the BP statement was contradicted by the study.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: The oil dispersant Corexit, previously only used as a surface application, was released underwater in unprecedented amounts, with the intent of making it more easily biodegraded by naturally occurring microbes. Thus, oil that would normally rise to the surface of the water was emulsified into tiny droplets and remained suspended in the water and on the sea floor. The oil and dispersant mixture permeated the food chain through zooplankton. Signs of an oil-and-dispersant mix were found under the shells of tiny blue crab larvae. A study of insect populations in the coastal marshes affected by the spill also found a significant impact. Chemicals from the spill were found in migratory birds as far away as Minnesota. Pelican eggs contained "petroleum compounds and Corexit". Dispersant and PAHs from oil are believed to have caused "disturbing numbers" of mutated fish that scientists and commercial fishers saw in 2012, including 50% of shrimp found lacking eyes and eye sockets. Fish with oozing sores and lesions were first noted by fishermen in November 2010. Prior to the spill, approximately 0.1% of Gulf fish had lesions or sores. A report from the University of Florida said that many locations showed 20% of fish with lesions, while later estimates reached 50%. In October 2013, Al Jazeera reported that the gulf ecosystem was "in crisis", citing a decline in seafood catches, as well as deformities and lesions found in fish. According to J. Christopher Haney, Harold Geiger, and Jeffrey Short, three researchers with extensive experience in environmental monitoring and post-spill mortality assessments, over one million coastal birds died as a direct result of the "Deepwater Horizon" spill. These numbers, coupled with the National Audubon Society scientists' observations of bird colonies and bird mortality well after the acute phase, have led scientists to conclude that more than one million birds ultimately succumbed to the lethal effects of the Gulf oil spill.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In July 2010, it was reported that the spill was "already having a 'devastating' effect on marine life in the Gulf". Damage to the ocean floor especially endangered the Louisiana pancake batfish whose range is entirely contained within the spill-affected area. In March 2012, a definitive link was found between the death of a Gulf coral community and the spill. According to NOAA, a cetacean Unusual Mortality Event (UME) has been recognized since before the spill began, NOAA is investigating possible contributing factors to the ongoing UME from the "Deepwater Horizon" spill, with the possibility of eventual criminal charges being filed if the spill is shown to be connected. Some estimates are that only 2% of the carcasses of killed mammals have been recovered.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In the first birthing season for dolphins after the spill, dead baby dolphins washed up along Mississippi and Alabama shorelines at about 10 times the normal number. A peer-reviewed NOAA/BP study disclosed that nearly half the bottlenose dolphins tested in mid-2011 in Barataria Bay, a heavily oiled area, were in “guarded or worse” condition, "including 17 percent that were not expected to survive". BP officials deny that the disease conditions are related to the spill, saying that dolphin deaths actually began being reported before the BP oil spill. By 2013, over 650 dolphins had been found stranded in the oil spill area, a four-fold increase over the historical average. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) reports that sea turtles, mostly endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, have been stranding at a high rate. Before the spill there was an average of 100 strandings per year; since the spill the number has jumped to roughly 500.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: NWF senior scientist Doug Inkley notes that the marine death rates are unprecedented and occurring high in the food chain, strongly suggesting there is "something amiss with the Gulf ecosystem". In December 2013, the journal "Environmental Science & Technology" published a study finding that of 32 dolphins briefly captured from 24-km stretch near southeastern Louisiana, half were seriously ill or dying. BP said the report was “inconclusive as to any causation associated with the spill”.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In 2012, tar balls continued to wash up along the Gulf coast and in 2013, tar balls could still be found in on the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts, along with oil sheens in marshes and signs of severe erosion of coastal islands, brought about by the death of trees and marsh grass from exposure to the oil. In 2013, former NASA physicist Bonny Schumaker noted a "dearth of marine life" in a radius around the well, after flying over the area numerous times since May 2010.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In 2013, researchers found that oil on the bottom of the seafloor did not seem to be degrading, and observed a phenomenon called a "dirty blizzard": oil in the water column began clumping around suspended sediments, and falling to the ocean floor in an "underwater rain of oily particles." The result could have long-term effects because oil could remain in the food chain for generations.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: A 2014 bluefin tuna study in "Science" found that oil already broken down by wave action and chemical dispersants was more toxic than fresh oil. A 2015 study of the relative toxicity of oil and dispersants to coral also found that the dispersants were more toxic than the oil.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: A 2015 study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, published in "PLOS ONE," links the sharp increase in dolphin deaths to the "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 12 April 2016, a research team reported that 88 percent of about 360 baby or stillborn dolphins within the spill area "had abnormal or under-developed lungs", compared to 15 percent in other areas. The study was published in the April 2016 " Diseases of Aquatic Organisms".


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: By June 2010, 143 spill-exposure cases had been reported to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals; 108 of those involved workers in the clean-up efforts, while 35 were reported by residents. Chemicals from the oil and dispersant are believed to be the cause; it is believed that the addition of dispersants made the oil more toxic.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: The United States Department of Health and Human Services set up the GuLF Study in June 2010 in response to these reports. The study is run by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and will last at least five years.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: Mike Robicheux, a Louisiana physician, described the situation as "the biggest public health crisis from a chemical poisoning in the history of this country." In July, after testing the blood of BP cleanup workers and residents in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida for volatile organic compounds, environmental scientist Wilma Subra said she was "finding amounts 5 to 10 times in excess of the 95th percentile"; she said that "the presence of these chemicals in the blood indicates exposure." Riki Ott, a marine toxicologist with experience of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, advised families to evacuate the Gulf. She said that workers from the Valdez spill had suffered long-term health consequences.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: Following the 26 May 2010 hospitalization of seven fishermen that were working in the cleanup crew, BP requested that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health perform a Health Hazard Evaluation. This was to cover all offshore cleanup activities, BP later requested a second NIOSH investigation of onshore cleanup operations. Tests for chemical exposure in the seven fishermen were negative; NIOSH concluded that the hospitalizations were most likely a result of heat, fatigue, and terpenes that were being used to clean the decks. Review of 10 later hospitalizations found that heat exposure and dehydration were consistent findings but could not establish chemical exposure. NIOSH personnel performed air monitoring around cleanup workers at sea, on land, and during the application of Corexit. Air concentrations of volatile organic compounds and PAHs never exceeded permissible exposure levels. A limitation of their methodology was that some VOCs may have already evaporated from the oil before they began their investigation. In their report, they suggest the possibility that respiratory symptoms might have been caused by high levels of ozone or reactive aldehydes in the air, possibly produced from photochemical reactions in the oil. NIOSH did note that many of the personnel involved were not donning personal protective equipment (gloves and impermeable coveralls) as they had been instructed to and emphasized that this was important protection against transdermal absorption of chemicals from the oil. Heat stress was found to be the most pressing safety concern.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: Workers reported that they were not allowed to use respirators, and that their jobs were threatened if they did. OSHA said "cleanup workers are receiving "minimal" exposure to airborne toxins...OSHA will require that BP provide certain protective clothing, but not respirators." "ProPublica" reported that workers were being photographed while working with no protective clothing. An independent investigation for Newsweek showed that BP did not hand out the legally required safety manual for use with Corexit, and were not provided with safety training or protective gear.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: A 2012 survey of the health effects of the spill on cleanup workers reported "eye, nose and throat irritation; respiratory problems; blood in urine, vomit and rectal bleeding; seizures; nausea and violent vomiting episodes that last for hours; skin irritation, burning and lesions; short-term memory loss and confusion; liver and kidney damage; central nervous system effects and nervous system damage; hypertension; and miscarriages". Dr. James Diaz, writing for the "American Journal of Disaster Medicine", said these ailments appearing in the Gulf reflected those reported after previous oil spills, like the Exxon Valdez. Diaz warned that "chronic adverse health effects, including cancers, liver and kidney disease, mental health disorders, birth defects and developmental disorders should be anticipated among sensitive populations and those most heavily exposed". Diaz also believes neurological disorders should be expected.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: Two years after the spill, a study initiated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found biomarkers matching the oil from the spill in the bodies of cleanup workers. Other studies have reported a variety of mental health issues, skin problems, breathing issues, coughing, and headaches. In 2013, during the three-day "Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill & Ecosystem Science Conference", findings discussed included a '"significant percentage" of Gulf residents reporting mental health problems like anxiety, depression and PTSD. These studies also showed that the bodies of former spill cleanup workers carry biomarkers of "many chemicals contained in the oil".


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: A study that investigated the health effects among children in Louisiana and Florida living less than 10 miles from the coast found that more than a third of the parents reported physical or mental health symptoms among their children. The parents reported "unexplained symptoms among their children, including bleeding ears, nose bleeds, and the early start of menstruation among girls," according to David Abramson, director of Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: A cohort study of almost 2,200 Louisiana women found "high physical/environmental exposure was significantly associated with all 13 of the physical health symptoms surveyed, with the strongest associations for burning in nose, throat or lungs; sore throat; dizziness and wheezing. Women who suffered a high degree of economic disruption as a result of spill were significantly more likely to report wheezing; headaches; watery, burning, itchy eyes and stuffy, itchy, runny nose.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: The spill had a strong economic impact to BP and also the Gulf Coast's economy sectors such as offshore drilling, fishing and tourism. Estimates of lost tourism dollars were projected to cost the Gulf coastal economy up to $22.7 billion through 2013. In addition, Louisiana reported that lost visitor spending through the end of 2010 totaled $32 million, and losses through 2013 were expected to total $153 million in this state alone. The Gulf of Mexico commercial fishing industry was estimated to have lost $247 million as a result of postspill fisheries closures. One study projects that the overall impact of lost or degraded commercial, recreational, and mariculture fisheries in the Gulf could be $8.7 billion by 2020, with a potential loss of 22,000 jobs over the same time frame. BP's expenditures on the spill included the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs, including fines and penalties. Due to the loss of the market value, BP had dropped from the second to the fourth largest of the four major oil companies by 2013. During the crisis, BP gas stations in the United States reported a sales drop of between 10 and 40% due to backlash against the company.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: Local officials in Louisiana expressed concern that the offshore drilling imposed in response to the spill would further harm the economies of coastal communities as the oil industry directly or indirectly employs about 318,000 Louisiana residents (17% of all jobs in the state). NOAA had closed , or approximately 36% of Federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, for commercial fishing causing $2.5 billion cost for the fishing industry. The U.S. Travel Association estimated that the economic impact of the oil spill on tourism across the Gulf Coast over a three-year period could exceed approximately $23 billion, in a region that supports over 400,000 travel industry jobs generating $34 billion in revenue annually.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 30 April 2010, President Barack Obama ordered the federal government to hold the issuing of new offshore drilling leases and authorized the investigation of 29 oil rigs in the Gulf in an effort to determine the cause of the disaster. Later a six-month offshore drilling (below of water) moratorium was enforced by the United States Department of the Interior. The moratorium suspended work on 33 rigs, and a group of affected companies formed the Back to Work Coalition. On 22 June, a United States federal judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana Martin Leach-Cross Feldman when ruling in the case "Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar", lifted the moratorium finding it too broad, arbitrary and not adequately justified. The ban was lifted in October 2010.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: Prior to the oil spill, on March 31, 2010, Obama ended a ban on oil and gas drilling along the majority of the East Coast of the United States and along the coast of northern Alaska in an effort to win support for an energy and climate bill and to reduce foreign imports of oil and gas.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 28 April 2010, the National Energy Board of Canada, which regulates offshore drilling in the Canadian Arctic and along the British Columbia Coast, issued a letter to oil companies asking them to explain their argument against safety rules which require same-season relief wells. On 3 May California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger withdrew his support for a proposed plan to allow expanded offshore drilling projects in California. On 8 July, Florida Governor Charlie Crist called for a special session of the state legislature to draft an amendment to the state constitution banning offshore drilling in state waters, which the legislature rejected on 20 July.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In October 2011, the United States Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service was dissolved after it was determined it had exercised poor oversight over the drilling industry. Three new agencies replaced it, separating the regulation, leasing, and revenue collection responsibilities respectively, among the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and Office of Natural Resources Revenue.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 30 April, President Obama dispatched the Secretaries of the Department of Interior and Homeland Security, as well as the EPA Administrator and NOAA to the Gulf Coast to assess the disaster. In his 15 June speech, Obama said, "This oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced... Make no mistake: we will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long as it takes. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever's necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy." Interior Secretary Ken Salazar stated, "Our job basically is to keep the boot on the neck of British Petroleum." Some observers suggested that the Obama administration was being overly aggressive in its criticisms, which some BP investors saw as an attempt to deflect criticism of his own handling of the crisis. Rand Paul accused President Obama of being anti-business and "un-American".


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: Public opinion polls in the U.S. were generally critical of the way President Obama and the federal government handled the disaster and they were extremely critical of BPs response. Across the US, thousands participated in dozens of protests at BP gas stations and other locations, reducing sales at some stations by 10% to 40%.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: The petroleum industry claimed that disasters are infrequent and that this spill was an isolated incident and rejected claims of a loss of industry credibility. The American Petroleum Institute (API) stated that the offshore drilling industry is important to job creation and economic growth. CEOs from the top five oil companies all agreed to work harder at improving safety. API announced the creation of an offshore safety institute, separate from API's lobbying operation.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: The Organization for International Investment, a Washington D.C.-based advocate for overseas investment in the United States, warned that the heated rhetoric was potentially damaging the reputation of British companies with operations in the United States and could spark a wave of U.S. protectionism that would restrict British firms from government contracts, political donations and lobbying.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In July 2010, President Obama issued an executive order, specifically citing the "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill, that adopted recommendations from the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and established the National Ocean Council. The council called together a number of federal committees and departments engaged in ocean issues to work with a newly established committee for conservation and resource management. In June 2018, the executive order establishing the National Ocean Council was revoked by then-U.S. president Donald Trump in an effort to roll back bureaucracy and benefit "ocean industries [that] employ millions of Americans".


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In the UK, there was anger at the American press and news outlets for the misuse of the term "British Petroleum" for the company – a name which has not been used since British Petroleum merged with the American company Amoco in 1998 to form BP Amoco. It was said that the U.S. was "dumping" the blame onto the British people and there were calls for British Prime Minister David Cameron to protect British interests in the United States. British pension fund managers (who have large holdings of BP shares and rely upon its dividends) accepted that while BP had to pay compensation for the spill and the environmental damage, they argued that the cost to the company's market value from President Obama's criticism was far outweighing the direct clean-up costs.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: Initially, BP downplayed the incident; its CEO Tony Hayward called the amount of oil and dispersant "relatively tiny" in comparison with the "very big ocean." Later, he drew an outpouring of criticism when he said that the spill was a disruption to Gulf Coast residents and himself adding, "You know, I'd like my life back." BP's chief operating officer Doug Suttles contradicted the underwater plume discussion noting, "It may be down to how you define what a plume is here… The oil that has been found is in very minute quantities." In June, BP launched a PR campaign and successfully bid for several search terms related to the spill on Google and other search engines so that the first sponsored search result linked directly to the company's website. On 26 July 2010, it was announced that CEO Tony Hayward was to resign and would be replaced by Bob Dudley, who is an American citizen and previously worked for Amoco.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: Hayward's involvement in "Deepwater Horizon" has left him a highly controversial public figure. In May 2013, he was honored as a "distinguished leader" by the University of Birmingham, but his award ceremony was stopped on multiple occasions by jeers and walk-outs and the focus of a protest from People & Planet members.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In July 2013, Hayward was awarded an honorary degree from Robert Gordon University. This was described as a "sick joke" and "a very serious error of judgement" by Friends of the Earth Scotland. The student body president expressed that students would be "very disappointed."


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: The U.S. government rejected offers of cleanup help from Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations. The U.S. State Department listed 70 assistance offers from 23 countries, all being initially declined, but later, 8 had been accepted. The USCG actively requested skimming boats and equipment from several countries.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In the United States the "Deepwater Horizon" investigation included several investigations and commissions, including reports by the USCG National Incident Commander, Admiral Thad Allen, the National Commission on the BP "Deepwater Horizon" Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), National Academy of Engineering, National Research Council, Government Accountability Office, National Oil Spill Commission, and Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. The Republic of the Marshall Islands Maritime Administrator conducted a separate investigation on the marine casualty. BP conducted its internal investigation.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: An investigation of the possible causes of the explosion was launched on 22 April 2010 by the USCG and the Minerals Management Service. On 11 May the United States administration requested the National Academy of Engineering conduct an independent technical investigation. The National Commission on the BP "Deepwater Horizon" Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling was established on 22 May to "consider the root causes of the disaster and offer options on safety and environmental precautions." The investigation by United States Attorney General Eric Holder was announced on 1 June 2010. Also the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce conducted a number of hearings, including hearings of Tony Hayward and heads of Anadarko and Mitsui's exploration unit. According to the US Congressional investigation, the rig's blowout preventer, built by Cameron International Corporation, had a hydraulic leak and a failed battery, and therefore failed.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 8 September 2010, BP released a 193-page report on its web site. The report places some of the blame for the accident on BP but also on Halliburton and Transocean. The report found that on 20 April 2010, managers misread pressure data and gave their approval for rig workers to replace drilling fluid in the well with seawater, which was not heavy enough to prevent gas that had been leaking into the well from firing up the pipe to the rig, causing the explosion. The conclusion was that BP was partly to blame, as was Transocean, which owned the rig. Responding to the report, Transocean and Halliburton placed all blame on BP.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 9 November 2010, a report by the Oil Spill Commission said that there had been "a rush to completion" on the well and criticised poor management decisions. "There was not a culture of safety on that rig," the co-chair said.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: The National Commission on the BP "Deepwater Horizon" Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling released a final report on 5 January 2011. The panel found that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean had attempted to work more cheaply and thus helped to trigger the explosion and ensuing leakage. The report stated that "whether purposeful or not, many of the decisions that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean made that increased the risk of the Macondo blowout clearly saved those companies significant time (and money)." BP released a statement in response to this, saying, that "even prior to the conclusion of the commission's investigation, BP instituted significant changes designed to further strengthen safety and risk management." Transocean, however, blamed BP for making the decisions before the actual explosion occurred and government officials for permitting those decisions. Halliburton stated that it was acting only upon the orders of BP when it injected the cement into the wall of the well. It criticized BP for its failure to run a cement bond log test. In the report, BP was accused of nine faults. One was that it had not used a diagnostic tool to test the strength of the cement. Another was ignoring a pressure test that had failed. Still another was for not plugging the pipe with cement. The study did not, however, place the blame on any one of these events. Rather, it concluded that "notwithstanding these inherent risks, the accident of April 20 was avoidable" and that "it resulted from clear mistakes made in the first instance by BP, Halliburton and Transocean, and by government officials who, relying too much on industry's assertions of the safety of their operations, failed to create and apply a program of regulatory oversight that would have properly minimized the risk of deepwater drilling." The panel also noted that the government regulators did not have sufficient knowledge or authority to notice these cost-cutting decisions.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 23 March 2011, BOEMRE (former MMS) and the USCG published a forensic examination report on the blowout preventer, prepared by Det Norske Veritas. The report concluded that the primary cause of failure was that the blind shear rams failed to fully close and seal due to a portion of drill pipe buckling between the shearing blocks.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: The US government report issued in September 2011 stated that BP is ultimately responsible for the spill, and that Halliburton and Transocean share some of the blame. The report states that the main cause was the defective cement job, and Halliburton, BP and Transocean were, in different ways, responsible for the accident. The report stated that, although the events leading to the sinking of "Deepwater Horizon" were set into motion by the failure to prevent a well blowout, the investigation revealed numerous systems deficiencies, and acts and omissions by Transocean and its "Deepwater Horizon" crew, that had an adverse impact on the ability to prevent or limit the magnitude of the disaster. The report also states that a central cause of the blowout was failure of a cement barrier allowing hydrocarbons to flow up the wellbore, through the riser and onto the rig, resulting in the blowout. The loss of life and the subsequent pollution of the Gulf of Mexico were the result of poor risk management, last‐minute changes to plans, failure to observe and respond to critical indicators, inadequate well control response, and insufficient emergency bridge response training by companies and individuals responsible for drilling at the Macondo well and for the operation of the drilling platform.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 16 June 2010, after BP executives met with President Obama, BP announced and established the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), a $20 billion fund to settle claims arising from the "Deepwater Horizon" spill. This fund was set aside for natural resource damages, state and local response costs, and individual compensation, but could not be used for fines or penalties. Prior to establishing the GCCF, emergency compensation was paid by BP from an initial facility.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: The GCCF was administrated by attorney Kenneth Feinberg. The facility began accepting claims on 23 August 2010. On 8 March 2012, after BP and a team of plaintiffs' attorneys agreed to a class-action settlement, a court-supervised administrator Patrick Juneau took over administration. Until this more than one million claims of 220,000 individual and business claimants were processed and more than $6.2 billion was paid out from the fund. 97% of payments were made to claimants in the Gulf States. In June 2012, the settlement of claims through the GCCF was replaced by the court-supervised settlement program. During this transition period additional $404 million in claims were paid.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: The GCCF and its administrator Feinberg had been criticized about the amount and speed of payments as well as a lack of transparency. An independent audit of the GCCF, announced by Attorney General Eric Holder, was approved by Senate on 21 October 2011. An auditor BDO Consulting found that 7,300 claimants were wrongly denied or underpaid. As a result, about $64 million of additional payments was made. The Mississippi Center for Justice provided pro bono assistance to 10,000 people to help them "navigate the complex claims process." In a "New York Times" opinion piece, Stephen Teague, staff attorney at the Mississippi Center for Justice, argued that BP had become "increasingly brazen" in "stonewalling payments." "But tens of thousands of gulf residents still haven't been fully compensated for their losses, and many are struggling to make ends meet. Many low-wage workers in the fishing and service industries, for example, have been seeking compensation for lost wages and jobs for three years."


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In July 2013, BP made a motion in court to freeze payments on tens of thousands of claims, arguing inter alia that a staff attorney from the "Deepwater Horizon" Court-Supervised Settlement Program, the program responsible for evaluating compensation claims, had improperly profited from claims filed by a New Orleans law firm. The attorney is said to have received portions of settlement claims for clients he referred to the firm. The federal judge assigned to the case, Judge Barbier, refused to halt the settlement program, saying he had not seen evidence of widespread fraud, adding that he was "offended by what he saw as attempts to smear the lawyer administering the claims."


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: By 26 May 2010, over 130 lawsuits relating to the spill had been filed against one or more of BP, Transocean, Cameron International Corporation, and Halliburton Energy Services, although it was considered likely by observers that these would be combined into one court as a multidistrict litigation. On 21 April 2011, BP issued $40 billion worth of lawsuits against rig owner Transocean, cementer Halliburton and blowout preventer manufacturer Cameron. The oil firm alleged failed safety systems and irresponsible behaviour of contractors had led to the explosion, including claims that Halliburton failed to properly use modelling software to analyze safe drilling conditions. The firms deny the allegations.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 2 March 2012, BP and plaintiffs agreed to settle their lawsuits. The deal would settle roughly 100,000 claims filed by individuals and businesses affected by the spill. On 13 August, BP asked US District Judge Carl Barbier to approve the settlement, saying its actions "did not constitute gross negligence or willful misconduct". On 13 January 2013, Judge Barbier approved a medical-benefits portion of BP's proposed $7.8 billion partial settlement. People living for at least 60 days along oil-impacted shores or involved in the clean-up who can document one or more specific health conditions caused by the oil or dispersants are eligible for benefits, as are those injured during clean-up. BP also agreed to spend $105 million over five years to set up a Gulf Coast health outreach program and pay for medical examinations. According to a group presenting the plaintiffs, the deal has no specific cap. BP says that it has $9.5 billion in assets set aside in a trust to pay the claims, and the settlement will not increase the $37.2 billion the company budgeted for spill-related expenses. BP originally expected to spend $7.8 billion. By October 2013 it had increased its projection to $9.2 billion, saying it could be "significantly higher."


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 31 August 2012, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed papers in federal court in New Orleans blaming BP for the Gulf oil spill, describing the spill as an example of "gross negligence and willful misconduct." In their statement the DOJ said that some of BP's arguments were "plainly misleading" and that the court should ignore BP's


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: argument that the Gulf region is "undergoing a robust recovery". BP rejected the charges saying "BP believes it was not grossly negligent and looks forward to presenting evidence on this issue at trial in January." The DOJ also said Transocean, the owner and operator of the "Deepwater Horizon" rig, was guilty of gross negligence as well.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 14 November 2012, BP and the US Department of Justice reached a settlement. BP will pay $4.5 billion in fines and other payments, the largest of its kind in US history. In addition, the U.S. government temporarily banned BP from new federal contracts over its "lack of business integrity". The plea was accepted by Judge Sarah Vance of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on 31 January 2013. The settlement includes payments of $2.394 billion to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, $1.15 billion to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, $350 million to the National Academy of Sciences for oil spill prevention and response research, $100 million to the North America Wetland Conservation Fund, $6 million to General Treasury and $525 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Oil sector analysts at London-based investment bank Canaccord Genuity noted that a settlement along the lines disclosed would only be a partial resolution of the many claims against BP.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 3 January 2013, the US Justice Department announced "Transocean Deepwater Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act and to pay a total of $1.4 billion in civil and criminal fines and penalties". $800 million goes to Gulf Coast restoration Trust Fund, $300 million to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, $150 million to the National Wild Turkey Federation and $150 million to the National Academy of Sciences. MOEX Offshore 2007 agreed to pay $45 million to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, $25 million to five Gulf state and $20 million to supplemental environmental projects.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 25 July 2013, Halliburton pleaded guilty to destruction of critical evidence after the oil spill and said it would pay the maximum allowable fine of $200,000 and will be subject to three years of probation.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In January 2014, a panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an effort by BP to curb payment of what it described as "fictitious" and "absurd" claims to a settlement fund for businesses and persons affected by the oil spill. BP said administration of the 2012 settlement was marred by the fact that people without actual damages could file a claim. The court ruled that BP hadn't explained "how this court or the district court should identify or even discern the existence of 'claimants that have suffered no cognizable injury.'" The Court then went further, calling BP's position "nonsensical." The Supreme Court of the United States later refused to hear BP's appeal after victims and claimants, along with numerous Gulf coast area chambers of commerce, objected to the oil major's efforts to renege on the Settlement Agreement.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In September 2014, Halliburton agreed to settle a large percentage of legal claims against it by paying $1.1 billion into a trust by way of three installments over two years.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: BP and its partners in the oil well, Transocean and Halliburton, went on trial on 25 February 2013 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans to determine payouts and fines under the Clean Water Act and the Natural Resources Damage Assessment. The plaintiffs included the U.S. Justice Department, Gulf states and private individuals. Tens of billions of dollars in liability and fines were at stake. A finding of gross negligence would result in a four-fold increase in the fines BP would have to pay for violating the federal Clean Water Act, and leave the company liable for punitive damages for private claims.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: The trial's first phase was to determine the liability of BP, Transocean, Halliburton, and other companies, and if they acted with gross negligence and willful misconduct. The second phase scheduled in September 2013 focused on the flow rate of the oil and the third phase scheduled in 2014 was to consider damages. According to the plaintiffs' lawyers the major cause of an explosion was the mishandling of a rig safety test, while inadequate training of the staff, poor maintenance of the equipment and substandard cement were also mentioned as things leading to the disaster. According to "The Wall Street Journal" the U.S. government and Gulf Coast states had prepared an offer to BP for a $16 billion settlement. However, it was not clear if this deal had been officially proposed to BP and if BP has accepted it.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 4 September 2014, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled BP was guilty of gross negligence and willful misconduct. He described BP's actions as "reckless." He said Transocean's and Halliburton's actions were "negligent." He apportioned 67% of the blame for the spill to BP, 30% to Transocean, and 3% to Halliburton. Fines would be apportioned commensurate with the degree of negligence of the parties, measured against the number of barrels of oil spilled. Under the Clean Water Act fines can be based on a cost per barrel of up to $4,300, at the discretion of the judge. The number of barrels was in dispute at the conclusion of the trial with BP arguing 2.5 million barrels were spilled over the 87 days the spill lasted, while the court contends 4.2 million barrels were spilled. BP issued a statement strongly disagreeing with the finding, and saying the court's decision would be appealed.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: Barbier ruled that BP had acted with “conscious disregard of known risks" and rejected BP's assertion that other parties were equally responsible for the oil spill. His ruling stated that BP "employees took risks that led to the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history", that the company was "reckless", and determined that several crucial BP decisions were "primarily driven by a desire to save time and money, rather than ensuring that the well was secure." BP strongly disagreed with the ruling and filed an immediate appeal.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: On 2 July 2015, BP, the U.S. Justice Department and five gulf states announced that the company agreed to pay a record settlement of $18.7 billion. To date BP's cost for the clean-up, environmental and economic damages and penalties has reached $54 billion.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In addition to the private lawsuits and civil governmental actions, the federal government charged multiple companies and five individuals with federal crimes.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In the November 2012 resolution of the federal charges against it, BP agreed to plead guilty to 11 felony counts related to the deaths of the 11 workers and paid a $4 billion fine. Transocean pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge as part of its $1.4 billion fine.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: In April 2012, the Justice Department filed the first criminal charge against Kurt Mix, a BP engineer, for obstructing justice by deleting messages showing that BP knew the flow rate was three times higher than initial claims by the company, and knew that "Top Kill" was unlikely to succeed, but claimed otherwise. Three more BP employees were charged in November 2012. Site managers Donald Vidrine and Robert Kaluza were charged with manslaughter for acting negligently in their supervision of key safety tests performed on the rig prior to the explosion, and failure to alert onshore engineers of problems in the drilling operation. David Rainey, BP's former vice-president for exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, was charged with obstructing Congress by misrepresenting the rate that oil was flowing out of the well. Lastly, Anthony Badalamenti, a Halliburton manager, was charged with instructing two employees to delete data related to Halliburton's cementing job on the oil well.


title: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

text: None of the charges against individuals resulted in any prison time, and no charges were levied against upper level executives. Anthony Badalementi was sentenced to one year probation, Donald Vidrine paid a $50,000 fine and received 10 months probation, Kurt Mix received 6 months' probation, and David Rainey and Robert Kaluza were acquitted.


title: Varun Dhawan

text: Varun Dhawan (; born 24 April 1987) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. One of India's highest-paid actors, he has been featured in "Forbes India" Celebrity 100 list since 2014. He has starred in 11 consecutive box-office successes between 2012 and 2018.


title: Varun Dhawan

text: The son of film director David Dhawan, he graduated in business studies from the Nottingham Trent University. He began his career as an assistant director to Karan Johar in "My Name Is Khan" (2010), and subsequently made his acting debut in 2012 with Johar's teen drama "Student of the Year". He rose to prominence with leading roles in the romantic comedies "Main Tera Hero" (2014), "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania" (2014), and "Badrinath Ki Dulhania" (2017); the action comedies "Dilwale" (2015), "Dishoom" (2016), and "Judwaa 2" (2017); the dance film "ABCD 2" (2015); and the drama "Sui Dhaaga" (2018).


title: Varun Dhawan

text: Dhawan received praise and nominations for two Filmfare Awards for playing an avenger in the thriller "Badlapur" (2015) and an aimless man coping with loss in the drama "October" (2018). Following three critical and commercial failures, he starred in "Jugjugg Jeeyo" (2022).


title: Varun Dhawan

text: Dhawan was born on 24 April 1987 to David Dhawan, a film director, and Karuna Dhawan. His family is Punjabi Hindu. His elder brother, Rohit, is a film director known for his debut venture "Desi Boyz", while his uncle, Anil, is an actor. He completed his HSC education from the H.R. College of Commerce and Economics. He has a degree in business studies from the Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom. Prior to his acting career, he worked as an assistant director to Karan Johar on the film "My Name Is Khan" (2010).


title: Varun Dhawan

text: Dhawan made his acting debut in 2012 with Johar's teen film "Student of the Year" alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt. He was cast as Rohan Nanda, the teenage son of a rich businessman, who competes with his girlfriend (Bhatt) and best friend (Malhotra) to win an annual school championship. Film critic Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama found Dhawan to be "a talent one can't help but marvel at" and CNN-IBN's Rajeev Masand added: "It's Varun Dhawan who stands out with a confident, charming turn, able to tackle both comical and vulnerable scenes with ease". "Student of the Year" was a commercial success, grossing worldwide.


title: Varun Dhawan

text: Dhawan next starred in the romantic comedy "Main Tera Hero" (2014), a remake of the Telugu film "Kandireega", which was produced by Balaji Motion Pictures and directed by his father David. He played an impetuous brat who is involved in a love triangle. Raedita Tandon of "Filmfare" commended Dhawan on his comic timing and compared him favourably to Govinda and Prabhudheva. The film emerged as a commercial success grossing 780 million Indian rupees worldwide.


title: Varun Dhawan

text: Dhawan then played Rakesh, a flirtatious Punjabi boy who engages in a romantic affair with an engaged Punjabi woman, in Shashank Khaitan's romantic comedy "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania". Co-starring Bhatt, the film was described as a tribute to "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" (1995) by Johar, who served as producer. Rohit Khilnani of "India Today" praised his screen presence, and Nandini Ramnath of "Mint" noted how much he stood out in the "few quieter scenes" of the film. "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania" emerged as one of top-grossing Indian productions of the year, earning worldwide.


title: Varun Dhawan

text: The crime thriller "Badlapur" (2015) from director Sriram Raghavan saw Dhawan play Raghu, a father who over the course of 15 years avenges the murder of his wife and son. Portraying Raghu was a "terrifying" experience for Dhawan, who "slipped into depression as after a point it no longer felt like I was acting in a film". Raja Sen of Rediff.com praised his acting range, writing that he "sheds his easy-breezy charm but, crucially, not his slightly hapless natural likeability and bubbles up volcanically, his eyes frequently doing the talking." He received a Filmfare Award for Best Actor nomination for his performance.


title: Varun Dhawan

text: Dhawan next starred opposite Shraddha Kapoor in the dance film "ABCD 2", in which he portrayed the real-life character of Kings United founder Suresh Mukund, a dancer from Mumbai who went on to win the 2012 World Hip Hop Dance Championship. Critic Shilpa Jamkhandikar of Reuters criticised the feature, finding Dhawan to be the only asset of the film, writing that "except for the honest note he strikes, the rest of the film could have been just a bunch of music videos". "ABCD 2" earned worldwide; the film's commercial performance led Box Office India to consider it an emergence of Dhawan's star power.


title: Varun Dhawan

text: Dhawan's final appearance that year was in Rohit Shetty's ensemble action drama "Dilwale", co-starring Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Kriti Sanon, in which he played the younger sibling of Khan's character. Despite mixed reviews from critics, the film proved to be a commercial success, grossing over worldwide , emerging as Dhawan's highest-grossing release and one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films. He next appeared in the action cop comedy "Dishoom" (2016), directed by Rohit, alongside John Abraham and Jacqueline Fernandez, as a rookie Indo-Emirati cop. Despite mixed reviews, the film proved to be successful at the box office grossing over worldwide.


title: Varun Dhawan

text: Dhawan reunited with Khaitan and Bhatt for the romantic comedy "Badrinath Ki Dulhania" (2017), in which he played the titular character, a chauvinist fiancé to Bhatt's character. Shubhra Gupta of "The Indian Express" wrote that Dhawan "impresses as a boy-struggling-to-be-a-man". In addition, Tushar Joshi of "Daily News and Analysis" noted that "Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt prove that on screen chemistry can be enough sometimes to keep you engaged in an average plot with a predictable narrative". He received his second Best Actor nomination at Filmfare for the film. Later in 2017, he starred in his father's "Judwaa 2", a reboot of his 1997 Salman Khan starrer "Judwaa", alongside Fernandez and Taapsee Pannu. Both "Badrinath Ki Dulhania" and "Judwaa 2" proved to be commercial successes, earning over each. "Forbes" published that with nine consecutive box office hits and a 100% success ratio, Dhawan had established himself as a "bona fide Bollywood superstar".


title: Varun Dhawan

text: Dhawan had two releases in 2018, Shoojit Sircar's drama "October" and Sharat Katariya's social problem film "Sui Dhaaga". "October", written by Sircar's frequent collaborator Juhi Chaturvedi, saw him portray Danish Walia, an aimless hotel management trainee whose life undergoes a series of changes when his co-worker goes into a coma. In a highly positive review, Anna M. M. Vetticad of "Firstpost" commended Dhawan for "effac[ing] his starry swagger and trademark cutesiness to play Dan"; Rohit Vats of "Hindustan Times" considered it to be his finest performance to date and wrote that "his humour is innate, but his understanding of pain and how it affects the human behaviour is even better". "Sui Dhaaga" featured Dhawan and Anushka Sharma respectively as Mauji and Mamta, a newly-wed couple in rural India who begin their own small-scale clothing business. Udita Jhunjunwala of "Mint" reviewed, "Dhawan has perfected the template for playing a simpleton. He brings a similar naiveté to Mauji, albeit endearingly." For "October", he received a nomination for the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor.


title: Varun Dhawan

text: Dhawan's sole screen appearance in 2019 was in Abhishek Varman's ensemble period drama "Kalank", in which he was once again paired opposite Bhatt. Set in the 1940s prior to the partition of India, the film featured him as a womanising blacksmith; for the physical demands of the part, he trained extensively despite suffering from a knee injury and hamstring tear, and insisted on performing his own stunts. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV was appreciative of Dhawan's against-type performance in it. Dhawan began the new decade with the dance film "Street Dancer 3D" (2020), which Namrata Joshi of "The Hindu" termed a "compilation of indistinguishable performances". Both "Kalank" and "Street Dancer 3D" did not perform well commercially, causing his career to suffer a setback. He worked with his father for a third time in "Coolie No. 1", a 2020 adaptation of the Govinda-starrer 1995 film of the same name, which owing to the COVID-19 pandemic released online on Amazon Prime Video. Critical and public reception to the film was negative, largely in light of the nepotism debate due to actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death. In a scathing review, Shubhra Gupta of "The Indian Express" called the film a "zero wit, no flair" disaster, noting that Dhawan had "channelled Govinda in many of his films much better".


title: Varun Dhawan

text: In 2022, Dhawan starred alongside Kiara Advani in "Jugjugg Jeeyo" (2022), a comedy-drama about divorce. Writing for "Hindustan Times", Monika Rawal Kukreja commended him for "add[ing] life to a complex character". It earned worldwide to emerge as one of the highest-grossing films of the year. Dhawan played the title role in "Bhediya", the third instalment in Dinesh Vijan's horror-comedy universe. The film was shot over a span of two months in various locations of Arunachal Pradesh. Sonal Dedhia of News18 wrote that he "is in full form and is a delight to watch as an egoistic prick-turned-reluctant-werewolf".


title: Varun Dhawan

text: Dhawan will next star in Nitesh Tiwari’s action film "Bawaal" opposite Janhvi Kapoor. He will also be part of the Indian spinoff of the American drama series "Citadel", created by the Russo Brothers, and directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K.


title: Varun Dhawan

text: Alongside his acting career, Dhawan performs on stage and has co-hosted two award ceremonies. In 2013, he performed at the Filmfare, Screen, and Stardust award ceremonies, and at an event in Hong Kong. He hosted the 2013 Stardust Awards ceremony with Sidharth Malhotra and Ayushmann Khurrana, and a segment of the 59th Filmfare Awards. He was also part of the 20th Screen Awards, co-hosting the show alongside Shahrukh Khan and Richa Chadda. In 2013, he performed at a special event alongside Malhotra, Bhatt, Kapur, Kapoor, and "Badlapur" co-star Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand.


title: Varun Dhawan

text: In September 2014, Dhawan became the brand ambassador of newly formed Indian Super League club FC Goa. He also donated Rs. 30 Lakhs in PM-CARES Fund of Government of India during the COVID-19 pandemic in India.


title: Varun Dhawan

text: Dhawan has appeared in "Forbes India" Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the 15th position in 2018, when the magazine estimated his annual income to be and listed him as one of the highest-paid celebrities in the country. In the same year, the Indian edition of "GQ" featured him among the nation's 50 most influential young people and labelled him as the "most bankable star of his generation".


title: John Tyler

text: John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president in 1841. He was elected vice president on the 1840 Whig ticket with President William Henry Harrison, succeeding to the presidency following Harrison's death 31 days after assuming office. Tyler was a stalwart supporter and advocate of states' rights, including regarding slavery, and he adopted nationalistic policies as president only when they did not infringe on the states' powers. His unexpected rise to the presidency posed a threat to the presidential ambitions of Henry Clay and other Whig politicians and left Tyler estranged from both of the nation's major political parties at the time.


title: John Tyler

text: Tyler was born into a prominent slaveholding Virginia family. He became a national figure at a time of political upheaval. In the 1820s, the nation's only political party was the Democratic-Republican Party, and it split into factions. Initially a Democrat, Tyler opposed President Andrew Jackson during the Nullification Crisis as he saw Jackson's actions as infringing on states' rights and criticized Jackson's expansion of executive power during the Bank War. This led Tyler to ally with the Whig Party. He served as a Virginia state legislator and governor, U.S. representative, and U.S. senator. Tyler was a regional Whig vice-presidential nominee in the 1836 presidential election; they lost. He was the sole nominee on the 1840 Whig presidential ticket as William Henry Harrison's running mate. Under the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too", the Harrison-Tyler ticket defeated incumbent president Martin Van Buren.


title: John Tyler

text: President Harrison died just one month after taking office, and Tyler became the first vice president to succeed to the presidency. Amid uncertainty as to whether a vice president succeeded a deceased president, or merely took on his duties, Tyler immediately took the presidential oath of office, setting a lasting precedent. He signed into law some of the Whig-controlled Congress's bills, but he was a strict constructionist and vetoed the party's most important bills to create a national bank and raise tariff rates. He believed that the president, rather than Congress, should set policy, and he sought to bypass the Whig establishment led by Senator Henry Clay. Most of Tyler's cabinet resigned shortly into his term and the Whigs expelled him from the party, dubbing him "His Accidency". Tyler was the first president to have his veto of legislation overridden by Congress. He faced a stalemate on domestic policy, although he had several foreign-policy achievements, including the Webster–Ashburton Treaty with Britain and the Treaty of Wanghia with China. Tyler firmly believed in manifest destiny and saw the annexation of Texas as economically advantageous to the United States, signing a bill to offer Texas statehood just before leaving office and returning to his plantation.


title: John Tyler

text: When the American Civil War began in 1861, Tyler at first supported the Peace Conference. When it failed he sided with the Confederacy. He presided over the opening of the Virginia Secession Convention and served as a member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States. Tyler subsequently won election to the Confederate House of Representatives but died before it assembled. Some scholars have praised Tyler's political resolve, but historians have generally given his presidency a low ranking. Tyler did make progress in combining the American and British navies to stop oceanic African slave trafficking under the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. That treaty also peacefully settled the border between Maine and Canada. Today, Tyler is seldom remembered in comparison to other presidents and maintains only a limited presence in American cultural memory.


title: John Tyler

text: John Tyler was born on March 29, 1790, to a slave-owning Virginia family. Like his future running mate, William Henry Harrison, Tyler hailed from Charles City County, Virginia, and was descended from the First Families of Virginia. The Tyler family traced its lineage to English immigrants and 17th century colonial Williamsburg. His father, John Tyler Sr., commonly known as Judge Tyler, was a friend and college roommate of Thomas Jefferson and served in the Virginia House of Delegates alongside Benjamin Harrison V, William's father. The elder Tyler served four years as Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates before becoming a state court judge and later governor of Virginia and a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at Richmond. His wife, Mary Marot (Armistead), was the daughter of prominent New Kent County plantation owner and one-term delegate, Robert Booth Armistead. She died of a stroke in 1797 when her son John was seven years old.


title: John Tyler

text: With two brothers and five sisters, Tyler was reared on Greenway Plantation, a estate with a six-room manor house his father had built. Enslaved labor tended various crops, including wheat, corn and tobacco. Judge Tyler paid high wages for tutors who challenged his children academically. Tyler was of frail health, thin and prone to diarrhea throughout life. At age 12, he continued a Tyler family tradition and entered the preparatory branch of the College of William and Mary. Tyler graduated from the school's collegiate branch in 1807, at age 17. Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" helped form his economic views, and he acquired a lifelong love of William Shakespeare. Bishop James Madison, the college's president, served as a second father and mentor to Tyler.


title: John Tyler

text: After graduation, Tyler read the law with his father, then a state judge, and later with Edmund Randolph, former United States Attorney General.


title: John Tyler

text: Tyler was admitted to the Virginia bar at the age of 19 (too young to be eligible, but the admitting judge neglected to ask his age). By this time, his father was governor of Virginia, and the young Tyler started a legal practice in Richmond, the state capital. According to the 1810 federal census, one “John Tyler” (presumably his father) owned eight slaves in Richmond, and possibly five slaves in adjoining Henrico County, and possibly 26 slaves in Charles City County.


title: John Tyler

text: In 1813, the year of his father's death, the younger Tyler purchased Woodburn plantation, where he lived until 1821. As of 1820, Tyler owned 24 enslaved persons at Woodburn, after having inherited 13 enslaved persons from his father, although only eight were listed as engaged in agriculture in that census.


title: John Tyler

text: In 1811, at age 21, Tyler was elected to represent Charles City County in the House of Delegates. He served five successive one-year terms (the first alongside Cornelius Egmon and later with Benjamin Harrison). As a state legislator, Tyler sat on the Courts and Justice Committee. His defining positions were on display by the end of his first term in 1811—strong, staunch support of states' rights and opposition to a national bank. He joined fellow legislator Benjamin W. Leigh in supporting the censure of U.S. senators William Branch Giles and Richard Brent of Virginia who had, against the Virginia legislature's instructions, voted for the recharter of the First Bank of the United States.


title: John Tyler

text: Like most Americans of his day, Tyler was anti-British, and at the onset of the War of 1812 he urged support for military action in a speech to the House of Delegates. After the British capture of Hampton, Virginia, in the summer of 1813, Tyler eagerly organized a militia company, the Charles City Rifles, to defend Richmond, which he commanded with the rank of captain. No attack came, and he dissolved the company two months later. For his military service, Tyler received a land grant near what later became Sioux City, Iowa.


title: John Tyler

text: Tyler's father died in 1813, and Tyler inherited 13 slaves along with his father's plantation. In 1816, he resigned his legislative seat to serve on the Governor's Council of State, a group of eight advisers elected by the General Assembly.


title: John Tyler

text: The death of U.S. Representative John Clopton in September 1816 created a vacancy in Virginia's 23rd congressional district. Tyler sought the seat, as did his friend and political ally Andrew Stevenson. Since the two men were politically alike, the race was for the most part a popularity contest. Tyler's political connections and campaigning skills narrowly won him the election. He was sworn into the Fourteenth Congress on December 17, 1816, to serve as a Democratic-Republican, the major political party in the Era of Good Feelings.


title: John Tyler

text: While the Democratic-Republicans had supported states' rights, in the wake of the War of 1812 many members urged a stronger central government. A majority in Congress wanted to see the federal government help to fund internal improvements such as ports and roadways. Tyler held fast to his strict constructionist beliefs, rejecting such proposals on both constitutional and personal grounds. He believed each state should construct necessary projects within its borders using locally generated funds. Virginia was not "in so poor a condition as to require a "charitable" donation from Congress", he contended. He was chosen to participate in an audit of the Second Bank of the United States in 1818 as part of a five-man committee, and was appalled by the corruption which he perceived within the bank. He argued for the revocation of the bank charter, although Congress rejected any such proposal. His first clash with General Andrew Jackson followed Jackson's 1818 invasion of Florida during the First Seminole War. While praising Jackson's character, Tyler condemned him as overzealous for the execution of two British subjects. Tyler was elected for a full term without opposition in early 1819.


title: John Tyler

text: The major issue of the Sixteenth Congress (1819–21) was whether Missouri should be admitted to the Union, and whether slavery would be permitted in the new state. Acknowledging the ills of slavery, he hoped that by letting it expand, there would be fewer slaves in the east as slave and master journeyed west, making it feasible to consider abolishing the institution in Virginia. Thus, slavery would be abolished through the action of individual states as the practice became rare, as had been done in some Northern states. Tyler believed that Congress did not have the power to regulate slavery and that admitting states based on whether they were slave or free was a recipe for sectional conflict; therefore, the Missouri Compromise was enacted without Tyler's support. It admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free one, and it also forbade slavery in states formed from the northern part of the territories. Throughout his time in Congress, he voted against bills which would restrict slavery in the territories.


title: John Tyler

text: Tyler declined to seek renomination in late 1820, citing ill health. He privately acknowledged his dissatisfaction with the position, as his opposing votes were largely symbolic and did little to change the political culture in Washington; he also observed that funding his children's education would be difficult on a congressman's low salary. He left office on March 3, 1821, endorsing his former opponent Stevenson for the seat, and returned to private law practice full-time.


title: John Tyler

text: Restless and bored after two years at home practicing law, Tyler sought election to the House of Delegates in 1823. Neither member from Charles City County was seeking reelection, and Tyler was elected easily that April, finishing first among the three candidates seeking the two seats. As the legislature convened in December, Tyler found the chamber debating the impending presidential election of 1824. The congressional nominating caucus, an early system for choosing presidential candidates, was still used despite its growing unpopularity. Tyler tried to convince the lower house to endorse the caucus system and choose William H. Crawford as the Democratic-Republican candidate. Crawford captured the legislature's support, but Tyler's proposal was defeated. His most enduring effort in this second legislative tenure was saving the College of William and Mary, which risked closure from waning enrollment. Rather than move it from rural Williamsburg to the more populated capital at Richmond, as some suggested, Tyler proposed administrative and financial reforms. These were passed into law and were successful; by 1840 the school achieved its highest enrollment.


title: John Tyler

text: Tyler's political fortunes were growing; he was considered as a possible candidate in the legislative deliberation for the 1824 U.S. Senate election. He was nominated in December 1825 for governor of Virginia, a position which was then appointed by the legislature. Tyler was elected 131–81 over John Floyd. The office of governor was powerless under the original Virginia Constitution (1776–1830), lacking even veto authority. Tyler enjoyed a prominent oratorical platform but could do little to influence the legislature. His most visible act as governor was delivering the funeral address for former president Jefferson, a Virginian and a former governor, who had died on July 4, 1826. Tyler was deeply devoted to Jefferson, and his eloquent eulogy was well received.


title: John Tyler

text: Tyler's governorship was otherwise uneventful. He promoted states' rights and adamantly opposed any concentration of federal power. In order to thwart federal infrastructure proposals, he suggested Virginia actively expand its own road system. A proposal was made to expand the state's poorly funded public school system, but no significant action was taken. Tyler was unanimously reelected to a second one-year term in December 1826.


title: John Tyler

text: In 1829, Tyler was elected as a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829–1830 from the district encompassing the cities of Richmond and Williamsburg and Charles City County, James City County, Henrico County, New Kent County, Warwick County, and York County. There, he served alongside Chief Justice John Marshall (a Richmond resident), Philip N. Nicholas and John B. Clopton. The leadership assigned him to the Committee on the Legislature. Tyler's service in various capacities at a state level included as president of the Virginia Colonization Society, and much later as rector and chancellor of the College of William and Mary.


title: John Tyler

text: In January 1827, the General Assembly considered whether to elect U.S. Senator John Randolph for a full six-year term. Randolph was a contentious figure; although he shared the staunch states' rights views held by most of the Virginia legislature, he had a reputation for fiery rhetoric and erratic behavior on the Senate floor, which put his allies in an awkward position. Furthermore, he had made enemies by fiercely opposing President John Quincy Adams and Kentucky Senator Henry Clay. The nationalists of the Democratic-Republican Party, who supported Adams and Clay, were a sizable minority in the Virginia legislature. They hoped to unseat Randolph by capturing the vote of states' rights supporters who were uncomfortable with the senator's reputation. They approached Tyler, and promised their endorsement if he sought the seat. Tyler repeatedly declined the offer, endorsing Randolph as the best candidate, but the political pressure continued to mount. Eventually he agreed to accept the seat if chosen. On the day of the vote, one assemblyman argued there was no political difference between the two candidates—Tyler was merely more agreeable than Randolph. The incumbent's supporters, though, contended that Tyler's election would be a tacit endorsement of the Adams administration. The legislature selected Tyler in a vote of 115–110, and he resigned his governorship on March 4, 1827, as his Senate term began.


title: John Tyler

text: By the time of Tyler's senatorial election, the 1828 campaign for president was in progress. Adams, the incumbent president, was challenged by Andrew Jackson. The Democratic-Republicans had splintered into Adams's National Republicans and Jackson's Democrats. Tyler disliked both candidates for their willingness to increase the power of the federal government, but was increasingly drawn to Jackson, hoping that he would not seek to spend as much federal money on internal improvements as Adams. Of Jackson, he wrote, "Turning to him I may at least indulge in hope; looking on Adams I must despair."


title: John Tyler

text: When the Twentieth Congress began in December 1827, Tyler served alongside his Virginia colleague and friend Littleton Waller Tazewell, who shared his strict constructionist views and uneasy support of Jackson. Throughout his tenure, Tyler vigorously opposed national infrastructure bills, feeling these were matters for individual states to decide. He and his Southern colleagues unsuccessfully opposed the protectionist Tariff of 1828, known to its detractors as the "Tariff of Abominations". Tyler suggested that the tariff's only positive outcome would be a national political backlash, restoring a respect for states' rights. He remained a strong supporter of states' rights, saying, "they may strike the Federal Government out of existence by a word; demolish the Constitution and scatter its fragments to the winds".


title: John Tyler

text: Tyler was soon at odds with President Jackson, frustrated by Jackson's newly emerging spoils system, describing it as an "electioneering weapon". He voted against many of Jackson's nominations when they appeared to be unconstitutional or motivated by patronage. Opposing the nominations of a president of his own party was considered "an act of insurgency" against his party. Tyler was particularly offended by Jackson's use of the recess appointment power to name three treaty commissioners to meet with emissaries from the Ottoman Empire, and introduced a bill chastising Jackson for this.


title: John Tyler

text: In some matters Tyler was on good terms with Jackson. He defended Jackson for vetoing the Maysville Road funding project, which Jackson considered unconstitutional. He voted to confirm several of Jackson's appointments, including Jackson's future running mate Martin Van Buren as United States Minister to Britain. The leading issue in the 1832 presidential election was the recharter of the Second Bank of the United States, which both Tyler and Jackson opposed. Congress voted to recharter the bank in July 1832, and Jackson vetoed the bill for both constitutional and practical reasons. Tyler voted to sustain the veto and endorsed Jackson in his successful bid for reelection.


title: John Tyler

text: Tyler's uneasy relationship with his party came to a head during the 22nd Congress, as the Nullification Crisis of 1832–33 began. South Carolina, threatening secession, passed the Ordinance of Nullification in November 1832, declaring the "Tariff of Abominations" null and void within its borders. This raised the constitutional question of whether states could nullify federal laws. Jackson, who denied such a right, prepared to sign a Force Bill allowing the federal government to use military action to enforce the tariff. Tyler, who sympathized with South Carolina's reasons for nullification, rejected Jackson's use of military force against a state and gave a speech in February 1833 outlining his views. He supported Clay's Compromise Tariff, enacted that year, to gradually reduce the tariff over ten years, alleviating tensions between the states and the federal government.


title: John Tyler

text: In voting against the Force Bill, Tyler knew he would permanently alienate the pro-Jackson faction of the Virginia legislature, even those who had tolerated his irregularity up to this point. This jeopardized his reelection in February 1833, in which he faced the pro-administration Democrat James McDowell, but with Clay's endorsement, Tyler was reelected by a margin of 12 votes.


title: John Tyler

text: Jackson further offended Tyler by moving to dissolve the Bank by executive fiat. In September 1833, Jackson issued an executive order directing Treasury Secretary Roger B. Taney to transfer federal funds from the Bank to state-chartered banks without delay. Tyler saw this as "a flagrant assumption of power", a breach of contract, and a threat to the economy. After months of agonizing, he decided to join with Jackson's opponents. Sitting on the Senate Finance Committee, he voted for two censure resolutions against the president in March 1834. By this time, Tyler had become affiliated with Clay's newly formed Whig Party, which held control of the Senate. On March 3, 1835, with only hours remaining in the congressional session, the Whigs voted Tyler President "pro tempore" of the Senate as a symbolic gesture of approval. He is the only U.S. president to have held this office.


title: John Tyler

text: Shortly thereafter, the Democrats took control of the Virginia House of Delegates. Tyler was offered a judgeship in exchange for resigning his seat, but he declined. He understood what was to come: the legislature would soon force him to cast a vote that went against his constitutional beliefs. Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri had introduced a bill expunging Jackson's censure. By resolution of the Democratic-controlled legislature, Tyler could be instructed to vote for the bill. If he disregarded the instructions, he would be violating his own principles: "the first act of my political life was a censure on Messrs. Giles and Brent for opposition to instructions", he noted. Over the next few months he sought the counsel of his friends, who gave him conflicting advice. By mid-February he felt that his Senate career was likely at an end. He issued a letter of resignation to Vice President Van Buren on February 29, 1836, saying in part:


title: John Tyler

text: While Tyler wished to attend to his private life and family, he was soon occupied with the 1836 presidential election. He had been suggested as a vice presidential candidate since early 1835, and the same day the Virginia Democrats issued the expunging instruction, the Virginia Whigs nominated him as their candidate. The new Whig Party was not organized enough to hold a national convention and name a single ticket against Van Buren, Jackson's chosen successor. Instead, Whigs in various regions put forth their own preferred tickets, reflecting the party's tenuous coalition: the Massachusetts Whigs nominated Daniel Webster and Francis Granger, the Anti-Masons of the Northern and border states backed William Henry Harrison and Granger, and the states' rights advocates of the middle and lower South nominated Hugh Lawson White and John Tyler. In Maryland, the Whig ticket was Harrison and Tyler and in South Carolina it was Willie P. Mangum and Tyler. The Whigs wanted to deny Van Buren a majority in the Electoral College, throwing the election into the House of Representatives, where deals could be made. Tyler hoped electors would be unable to elect a vice president, and that he would be one of the top two vote-getters, from whom the Senate, under the Twelfth Amendment, must choose.


title: John Tyler

text: Following the custom of the times—that candidates not appear to seek the office—Tyler stayed home throughout the campaign, and made no speeches. He received only 47 electoral votes, from Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, in the November 1836 election, trailing both Granger and the Democratic candidate, Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky. Harrison was the leading Whig candidate for president, but he lost to Van Buren. The presidential election was settled by the Electoral College, but for the only time in American history, the vice-presidential election was decided by the Senate, which selected Johnson over Granger on the first ballot.


title: John Tyler

text: Tyler had been drawn into Virginia politics as a U.S. senator. From October 1829 to January 1830, he served as a member of the state constitutional convention, a role he had been reluctant to accept. The original Virginia Constitution gave outsize influence to the state's more conservative eastern counties, as it allocated an equal number of legislators to each county regardless of population and granted suffrage only to property owners. The convention gave the more populous and liberal counties of western Virginia an opportunity to expand their influence. A slaveowner from eastern Virginia, Tyler supported the existing system, but largely remained on the sidelines during the debate, not wishing to alienate any of the state's political factions. He was focused on his Senate career, which required a broad base of support, and gave speeches during the convention promoting compromise and unity.


title: John Tyler

text: After the 1836 election, Tyler thought his political career was over, and planned to return to private law practice. In the fall of 1837 a friend sold him a sizable property in Williamsburg. Unable to remain away from politics, Tyler successfully sought election to the House of Delegates and took his seat in 1838. He was a national political figure by this point, and his third delegate service touched on such national issues as the sale of public lands.


title: John Tyler

text: Tyler's successor in the Senate was William Cabell Rives, a conservative Democrat. In February 1839, the General Assembly considered who should fill that seat, which was to expire the following month. Rives had drifted away from his party, signalling a possible alliance with the Whigs. As Tyler had already fully rejected the Democrats, he expected the Whigs would support him. Still, many Whigs found Rives a more politically expedient choice, as they hoped to ally with the conservative wing of the Democratic Party in the 1840 presidential election. This strategy was supported by Whig leader Henry Clay, who nevertheless admired Tyler at that time. With the vote split among three candidates, including Rives and Tyler, the Senate seat remained vacant for almost two years, until January 1841.


title: John Tyler

text: When the 1839 Whig National Convention convened in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to choose the party's ticket, the nation was in the third year of a serious recession following the Panic of 1837. Van Buren's ineffective efforts to deal with the situation cost him public support. With the Democratic Party torn into factions, the head of the Whig ticket would likely be the next president. Harrison, Clay, and General Winfield Scott all sought the nomination. Tyler attended the convention and was with the Virginia delegation, although he had no official status. Because of bitterness over the unresolved Senate election, the Virginia delegation refused to make Tyler its favorite son candidate for vice president. Tyler himself did nothing to aid his chances. If his favored candidate for the presidential nomination, Clay, was successful, he would likely not be chosen for the second place on the ticket, which would probably go to a Northerner to assure geographic balance.


title: John Tyler

text: The convention deadlocked among the three main candidates, with Virginia's votes going to Clay. Many Northern Whigs opposed Clay, and some, including Pennsylvania's Thaddeus Stevens, showed the Virginians a letter by Scott in which he apparently displayed abolitionist sentiments. The influential Virginia delegation then announced that Harrison was its second choice, causing most Scott supporters to abandon him in favor of Harrison, who gained the presidential nomination.


title: John Tyler

text: The vice presidential nomination was considered immaterial; no president had failed to complete his elected term. Not much attention was given to the choice, and the specifics of how Tyler came to gain it are unclear. Chitwood pointed out that Tyler was a logical candidate: as a Southern slaveowner, he balanced the ticket and also assuaged the fears of Southerners who felt Harrison might have abolitionist leanings. Tyler had been a vice-presidential candidate in 1836, and having him on the ticket might win Virginia, the most populous state in the South. One of the convention managers, New York publisher Thurlow Weed, alleged that "Tyler was finally taken because we could get nobody else to accept"—though he did not say this until after the subsequent break between President Tyler and the Whig Party. Other Tyler foes claimed that he had wept himself into the White House, after crying at Clay's defeat; this was unlikely, as the Kentuckian had backed Tyler's opponent Rives in the Senate election. Tyler's name was submitted in the balloting, and though Virginia abstained, he received the necessary majority. As president, Tyler was accused of having gained the nomination by concealing his views, and responded that he had not been asked about them. His biographer Robert Seager II held that Tyler was selected because of a dearth of alternative candidates. Seager concluded, "He was put on the ticket to draw the South to Harrison. No more, no less."


title: John Tyler

text: There was no Whig platform—the party leaders decided that trying to put one together would tear the party apart. So the Whigs ran on their opposition to Van Buren, blaming him and his Democrats for the recession. In campaign materials, Tyler was praised for integrity in resigning over the state legislature's instructions. The Whigs initially hoped to muzzle Harrison and Tyler, lest they make policy statements that alienated segments of the party. But after Tyler's Democratic rival, Vice President Johnson, made a successful speaking tour, Tyler was called upon to travel from Williamsburg to Columbus, Ohio, and there address a local convention, in a speech intended to assure Northerners that he shared Harrison's views. In his journey of nearly two months, Tyler made speeches at rallies. He could not avoid questions, and after being heckled into an admission that he supported the Compromise Tariff (many Whigs did not), resorted to quoting from Harrison's vague speeches. In his two-hour speech at Columbus, Tyler entirely avoided the issue of the Bank of the United States, one of the major questions of the day.


title: John Tyler

text: To win the election, Whig leaders decided they had to mobilize people across the country, including women, who could not then vote. This was the first time that an American political party included women in campaign activities on a widespread scale, and women in Tyler's Virginia were active on his behalf. The party hoped to avoid issues and win through public enthusiasm, with torchlight processions and alcohol-fueled political rallies. The interest in the campaign was unprecedented, with many public events. When the Democratic press depicted Harrison as an old soldier, who would turn aside from his campaign if given a barrel of hard cider to drink in his log cabin, the Whigs eagerly seized on the image, and the log cabin campaign was born. The fact that Harrison lived on a palatial estate along the Ohio River and that Tyler was well-to-do was ignored, while log cabin images appeared everywhere, from banners to whiskey bottles. Cider was the favored beverage of many farmers and tradesmen, and Whigs claimed that Harrison preferred that drink of the common man.


title: John Tyler

text: The presidential candidate's military service was emphasized, thus the well known campaign jingle, "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too", referring to Harrison's victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe. Glee clubs sprouted all over the country, singing patriotic and inspirational songs: one Democratic editor stated that he found the songfests in support of the Whig Party to be unforgettable. Among the lyrics sung were "We shall vote for Tyler therefore/Without a why or wherefore". Louis Hatch, in his history of the vice presidency, noted, "the Whigs roared, sang, and hard-cidered the 'hero of Tippecanoe' into the White House".


title: John Tyler

text: Clay, though embittered by another of his many defeats for the presidency, was appeased by Tyler's withdrawal from the still-unresolved Senate race, which would permit the election of Rives, and campaigned in Virginia for the Harrison/Tyler ticket. Tyler predicted the Whigs would easily take Virginia; he was embarrassed when he was proved wrong, but was consoled by an overall victory—Harrison and Tyler won by an electoral vote of 234–60 and with 53% of the popular vote. Van Buren took only seven states out of 26. The Whigs gained control of both houses of Congress.


title: John Tyler

text: As vice president-elect, Tyler remained quietly at his home in Williamsburg. He privately expressed hopes that Harrison would prove decisive and not allow intrigue in the Cabinet, especially in the first days of the administration. Tyler did not participate in selecting the Cabinet, and did not recommend anyone for federal office in the new Whig administration. Beset by office seekers and the demands of Senator Clay, Harrison twice sent Tyler letters asking his advice as to whether a Van Buren appointee should be dismissed. In both cases, Tyler recommended against, and Harrison wrote, "Mr. Tyler says they ought not to be removed, and I will not remove them." The two men met briefly in Richmond in February, and reviewed a parade together, though they did not discuss politics.


title: John Tyler

text: Tyler was sworn in on March 4, 1841, in the Senate chamber, and delivered a three-minute speech about states' rights before swearing in the new senators and then attending Harrison's inauguration. Following the new president's two-hour speech before a large crowd in freezing weather, Tyler returned to the Senate to receive the president's Cabinet nominations, presiding over the confirmations the following day—a total of two hours as president of the Senate. Expecting few responsibilities, he then left Washington, quietly returning to his home in Williamsburg. Seager later wrote, "Had William Henry Harrison lived, John Tyler would undoubtedly have been as obscure as any vice-president in American history."


title: John Tyler

text: Meanwhile, Harrison struggled to keep up with the demands of Clay and others who sought offices and influence in his administration. Harrison's age and fading health were no secret during the campaign, and the question of presidential succession was on every politician's mind. The first few weeks of the presidency took a toll on Harrison's health, and after being caught in a rainstorm in late March he came down with pneumonia and pleurisy. Secretary of State Daniel Webster sent word to Tyler of Harrison's illness on April 1; two days later, Richmond attorney James Lyons wrote with the news that the president had taken a turn for the worse, remarking, "I shall not be surprised to hear by tomorrow's mail that Gen'l Harrison is no more." Tyler decided not to travel to Washington, not wanting to appear unseemly in anticipating Harrison's death. At dawn on April 5, Webster's son Fletcher, chief clerk of the State Department, arrived at Tyler's Williamsburg home to officially inform him of Harrison's death the morning before. Tyler left Williamsburg and arrived in Washington at dawn the next day.


title: John Tyler

text: Harrison's death in office was an unprecedented event that caused considerable uncertainty about presidential succession. Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the United States Constitution, which governed intra-term presidential succession at the time (now superseded by the Twenty-fifth Amendment), states:


title: John Tyler

text: Interpreting this Constitutional prescription led to the question of whether the actual office of president devolved upon Tyler, or merely its powers and duties. The Cabinet met within an hour of Harrison's death and, according to a later account, determined that Tyler would be "vice-president acting president". But Tyler firmly and decisively asserted that the Constitution gave him full and unqualified powers of office and had himself sworn in immediately as president, setting a critical precedent for an orderly transfer of power following a president's death. Judge William Cranch administered the presidential oath in Tyler's hotel room. Tyler considered the oath redundant to his oath as vice president, but wished to quell any doubt over his accession. When he took office, Tyler, at 51, became the youngest president to that point. His record was in turn surpassed by his immediate successor James Polk, who was inaugurated at the age of 49.


title: John Tyler

text: "Fearing that he would alienate Harrison's supporters, Tyler decided to keep Harrison's entire cabinet even though several members were openly hostile to him and resented his assumption of the office." At his first cabinet meeting, Webster informed him of Harrison's practice of making policy by a majority vote. (This was a dubious assertion, since Harrison had held few cabinet meetings and had baldly asserted his authority over the cabinet in at least one.) The Cabinet fully expected the new president to continue this practice. Tyler was astounded and immediately corrected them:


title: John Tyler

text: Tyler delivered an informal inaugural address before the Congress on April 9, in which he reasserted his belief in fundamental tenets of Jeffersonian democracy and limited federal power. Tyler's claim to be president was not immediately accepted by opposition members of Congress such as John Quincy Adams, who felt that Tyler should be a caretaker under the title of "acting president", or remain vice president in name. Among those who questioned Tyler's authority was Clay, who had planned to be "the real power behind a fumbling throne" while Harrison was alive, and intended the same for Tyler. Clay saw Tyler as the "vice-president" and his presidency as a mere "regency".


title: John Tyler

text: Ratification of the decision by Congress came through the customary notification that it makes to the president, that it is in session and available to receive messages. In both houses, unsuccessful amendments were offered to strike the word "president" in favor of language including the term "vice president" to refer to Tyler. Mississippi Senator Robert J. Walker, in opposition, said that the idea that Tyler was still vice president and could preside over the Senate was absurd. On May 31, 1841, the House passed a joint resolution confirming Tyler as "President of the United States" for the remainder of his term. On June 1, 1841, the Senate voted in favor of the resolution. Most importantly, Senators Clay and John C. Calhoun voted with the majority to reject Walker's amendment.


title: John Tyler

text: Tyler's opponents never fully accepted him as president. He was called by many mocking nicknames, including "His Accidency". But Tyler never wavered from his conviction that he was the rightful president; when his political opponents sent correspondence to the White House addressed to the "vice president" or "acting president", Tyler had it returned unopened.


title: John Tyler

text: Tyler was considered a strong leader for his decisive action on his accession to the presidency. But he generally held a limited view of presidential power, that legislation should be initiated by Congress, and the presidential veto should be only used when a law was unconstitutional or against the national interest.


title: John Tyler

text: Like Harrison, Tyler had been expected to adhere to Whig Party Congressional public policies and to defer to Whig party leader Clay. The Whigs especially demanded that Tyler curb the veto power, in response to Jackson's perceived authoritarian presidency. Clay had envisioned Congress to be modeled after a parliamentary-type system where he was the leader. Initially Tyler concurred with the new Whig Congress, signing into law the preemption bill granting "squatters' sovereignty" to settlers on public land, a Distribution Act (discussed below), a new bankruptcy law, and the repeal of the Independent Treasury. But when it came to the great banking question, Tyler was soon at odds with the Congressional Whigs, and twice vetoed Clay's legislation for a national banking act. Although the second bill was originally tailored to meet his objections in the first veto, its final version did not. This practice, designed to protect Clay from having a successful incumbent president as a rival for the Whig nomination in 1844, became known as "heading Captain Tyler", a term coined by Whig Representative John Minor Botts of Virginia. Tyler proposed an alternative fiscal plan known as the "Exchequer", but Clay's friends who controlled the Congress would have none of it.


title: John Tyler

text: On September 11, 1841, after the second bank veto, members of the cabinet entered Tyler's office one by one and resigned—an orchestration by Clay to force Tyler's resignation and place his own lieutenant, Senate President "pro tempore" Samuel L. Southard, in the White House. The only exception was Webster, who remained to finalize what became the 1842 Webster–Ashburton Treaty, and to demonstrate his independence from Clay. When told by Webster that he was willing to stay, Tyler is reported to have said, "Give me your hand on that, and now I will say to you that Henry Clay is a doomed man." On September 13, when the president did not resign or give in, the Whigs in Congress expelled Tyler from the party. Tyler was lambasted by Whig newspapers and received hundreds of letters threatening his assassination. Whigs in Congress were so angry with Tyler that they refused to allocate funds to fix the White House, which had fallen into disrepair.