#jqa diary

"Called from my nursery and garden by a visit from Mr. [Josiah] Quincy, President of Harvard University...He told me also that as President Jackson is about visiting Boston, the Corporation of the university had thought it necessary to invite him to visit the colleges; that he (Mr. Quincy) should address him in a Latin discourse, and confer upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws; and he intimated that I should receive an invitation to be present at these ceremonies.

I said that the personal relations in which President Jackson had chosen to place himself with me were such that I could hold no intercourse of a friendly character with him. I could therefore not accept an invitation to attend upon this occasion. And, independent of that, as myself an affectionate child of our Alma Mater, I would not be present to witness her disgrace in conferring her highest literary honors upon a barbarian who could not write a sentence of grammar and hardly could spell his own name.

Mr. Quincy said he was sensible how utterly unworthy of literary honors Jackson was, but the Corporation thought it was necessary to follow the precedent, and treat him precisely as Mr. [James] Monroe, his predecessor, had been treated. As the people of the United States had seen fit to make him their President, the Corporation thought the honors which they conferred upon him were compliments due to the station, by whomsoever it was occupied. Mr. Quincy said it was thought also that the omission to show the same respect to President Jackson which had been shown to Mr. Monroe would be imputed to party spirit -- which they were anxious to avoid...I adhered to my determination to stay at home."

"At 30 minutes past midnight this morning of Palm-Sunday the 4th of April 1841, died William Henry Harrison, precisely one calendar month as President of the United States after his inauguration. The first impression of this event, here where it occurred is of the frailty of all human enjoyments, and the awful vicissitudes woven into the lot of mortal man. He had reached but one short month since the pinnacle of honour and power in his own country. He lies a lifeless corpse in the Palace provided by his Country for his abode. He was amiable and benevolent. Sympathy for his sufferings and his fate, is the prevailing sentiment of his fellow-citizens. The bereavement and distress of his family, is felt intensely, albeit they are strangers here, and known to scarcely any one. His wife had not yet even left his residence at North Bend, Ohio, to join him here. An express was sent for her two or three days since, but the tidings of death must meet her before she can reach this city.

The influence of this event upon the condition and history of the Country, can scarcely be foreseen. It makes the Vice-President of the United States, John Tyler, acting President of the Union, for four years, less one month. Tyler is a political sectarian of the Slave-driving, Virginian Jeffersonian school. Principled against all improvement. With all the interests and passions, and vices of Slavery rooted in his moral and political constitution -- with talents not above mediocrity, and a spirit incapable of expansion to the dimensions of the station upon which he has been cast by the hand of Providence unseen through the apparent agency of chance. I trust in humble hope of the good, which it always brings forth out of evil. In upwards of half a century, this is the first instance of a Vice-President's being called to act as President of the United States, and brings to the test that provision of the Constitution which places in the Executive Chair a man never thought of for it by any body. This day was in every sense gloomy."

-- Former President John Quincy Adams, who spent almost his entire post-Presidential life serving in the U.S. House of Representatives after leaving the White House, on the death of President William Henry Harrison and succession of John Tyler, in an entry to JQA's personal diary, April 4, 1841.

Since President Harrison was the first President to die in office and Tyler the first Vice President to succeed to office, it was not entirely clear whether that meant Tyler was merely "acting President" or had fully assumed the Presidency. Adams was one of many leaders who believed that Tyler's role was meant to be that of a caretaker, but Tyler claimed all the powers and trappings of an incumbent President, setting the "Tyler Precedent", which established Presidential succession for everyone who followed.