Virginia - Day 12 - Presidents 9 & 10

Newport News Park Campground
Tuesday, 12 March 2019

today's route

Today, I set off to learn about 2 long ago presidents, William Henry Harrison and John Tyler.

Berkeley Plantatioand Pres. Wm. Harrison
This plantation was the birthplace of Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his 3rd son William Henry Harrison, our 9th president.

at the entrance

the drive

It's known for its 10 acres of beautiful gardens and lawn on the banks of the James River, though at this time of year there wasn't much beauty to see.  I decided against the tour of the house when I learned it would last 45 minutes, and I'd arrived almost at lunch time and had mouths to feed.  Instead, I had a very interesting conversation with Clarence, who sold me a ticket to the grounds, learning a lot about the whole Harrison family.  And the dogs and I had a nice walk around the place.

the Harrison house

Clarence told me that Benjamin Harrison I and II and III lived and farmed on the other side of the James River.  They started the first tobacco-shipping business in the country.  I heard different stories about how the family acquired the plantation land, but it's undisputed that BH IV built a Georgian-style home there in 1726.  It's the oldest 3-story brick house in VA that can prove its date, and the first with a pediment roof.

Pres. Harrison

Wm. Henry Harrison became the Governor of the Indiana Territory and worked to acquire title to Indian lands for westward-bound settlers.  Naturally, the Indians opposed this and, in 1811, Harrison amassed 1,000 men to attack an Indian town.  The Indians attacked first and left 190 of Harrison's men dead or wounded.  This was known as the Battle of Tippecanoe (River).  Two years later in the War of 1812, as brigadier general he defeated a combined force of British and French.  As a war hero, the Whig Party nominated him for president in 1840.

Harrison was 68 when he was elected - the oldest to be elected at that point - and there was a lot of talk at the time that he was too old to hold the office.  To prove how fit he was, he chose not to wear a hat or overcoat at his inauguration, though it was lousy March weather, and his address lasted 2 hours.  As might be expected, he developed pneumonia and died 30 days later.

The Berkeley Plantation had been inherited by one of Harrison's older brothers, then passed to his son, who decided to farm tobacco only instead of rotating crops.  As a result, the soil eventually failed to support the crops; the son took out bank loans, then defaulted, losing the plantation two years after Harrison's death.  The family moved "out west" and Wm. H. Harrison's grandson, future president Benjamin Harrison, was born in Ohio.

The Berkeley Plantation has a much older history than the Harrison family's attachment to it.  The area was first known as the Berkeley Hundred (remember that term from Delaware?) when it was settled in 1619, and the settlers celebrated the 1st official Thanksgiving.  In 1621-22, the first bourbon whiskey in America was distilled here.  The settlement was abandoned (maybe the whiskey?), then repatented in 1636.  George Washington and multiple other presidents were entertained here.

In the summer of 1862, Gen. McClellan's Army of the Potomac was encamped here and the house was used as their heaquarters.  While they were here, Gen. Butterfield composed "Taps" and had his bugler play it for the first time.  (Didn't know it was that old, did you?)

The photo on the left is of the kitchen building and slave quarters.  If you can blow it up, you'll see a cannonball lodged into the wall near the chimney.  The sign says it was fired by the men of Confederate Gen. J.B. Stuart in 1862.

This is still a working farm and they now grow corn, wheat and soybeans (and rotate the crops).

Sherwood Forest and Pres. Tyler

explains the home's uniqueness

Sherwood Forest

This plantation was not Tyler's birthplace but instead the last house he lived in.  He bought it while he was president and retired here with his 2nd wife Julia.  The house isn't open to the public because the Tyler family still lives there.

Tyler was never elected to the presidency but instead filled out the 4 years minus 30 days of Harrison's presidency.  Because this was the first time a president didn't serve out his term, there was a lot of controversy over the meaning of the following clause of Article II, Section 1:

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President[.]

Many thought these words meant the vice president would remain the vice president and merely assume the duties of the president.  Tyler shocked a whole lot of people by asserting it meant that the office, and not just the duties, would be what devolved, and immediately had himself sworn in as president and moved into the White House.  The opposition thought his title should be "Acting President," but Tyler returned unopened all mail addressed to him like that.

While this issue was never resolved during his presidency, he did establish the precedent for orderly transfer of power, one that was eventually codified in the 25th Amendment.

That wasn't the only thing Tyler got to be first on: at 51 years of age he was the youngest

Pres. Tyler

president up to that point; he still holds the record for most children: 8 by his first wife and 7 by his second; he was the only president ever buried under a flag other than the US flag, and he was the only president whose death wasn't officially recognized in Washington: he was actually a member of the Confederate Congress just before his death.

When he became president, Tyler kept all Harrison's cabinet, including Sec. of State Daniel Webster, who insisted Tyler set policy by a majority vote of the Cabinet.  Tyler said nope, it's my administration, and they could get out if they didn't like it.  Meanwhile, Henry Clay and the Whigs had expected to treat Harrison as a puppet president and tried to do the same with Tyler; when Tyler refused, they threw him out of the Whig Party and spent the rest of his term trying to stop almost everything he did.  Congress refused to confirm more of Tyler's nominees for various positions than any other president.  (History keeps repeating itself and we keep on not learning anything from it.)

Tyler worked hard to annex Texas (see Whig opposition above) and managed to get that through Congress just before his term ended.  He applied the Monroe Doctrine to Hawaii to keep the British out.  He resolved the conflict with Britain over the boundary between Maine and Canada.

Tyler was a strict Constitutional constructionist and, thus, an ardent advocate for states' rights.  He owned slaves himself but disliked the institution and wanted it abolished, but he believed the federal government couldn't regulate states' choices (such as allowing slavery).  He disapproved of the Missouri Compromise, believing adding states based on their position on slavery would lead to sectional conflict.  He got that one right.

However, his proposed solution was to let slavery expand westward, believing it would result in fewer slaves in Virginia (apparently thinking there was a finite number of slaves so that number would be spread much thinner in each state).  He thought it would be easier to abolish slavery in Virginia when it became more rare there.  He got that one wrong.

Observations while driving
Daffodils are blooming all over, making me think spring might actually be here.

A church in Westover near Berkeley Plantation had a sign saying they'll be holding a Celtic Service Sunday (St. Pat's Day).

To me a chapel is a small building.  The Williamsburg Community Chapel, however, must think differently because it's Huge.

Every highway I've been on in Virginia has a big litter problem.  This is the worst of any state I've been in so far.  Not surprisingly, I so far haven't seen any signs for an adopt-a-highway program so I looked it up.  Virginia's got such a program, but volunteers only commit to cleaning up 2 or 3 times a year, instead of the once a month I'm used to.  A real shame because otherwise Virginia is a lovely state, even in the winter.

The Lower Peninsula has a river called the Chickahominy, which sounds to me like a dinner order.  It's a pretty decent-sized river and the bridge took me by surprise this afternoon.  Not to worry, though, because it was only a normal size and length.

I'd wanted to drive through Williamsburg to see the College of William & Mary (2nd oldest in the US, after Harvard), but when I looked closely at the online maps the streets looked like a maze.  And then I noticed Chowning's Tavern and realized I was looking at what is called Colonial Williamsburg.  Apparently the town of Williamsburg nearly died about 80 years ago, but Mr. and Mrs. John D Rockefeller, Jr., among others, became interested and poured money and support into preserving so much US history.  I was afraid to get my RV caught up in some narrow old brick street or other so decided to hold off on seeing the college.