Florida Became a State in Drama-Filled Political Days

Florida became a state on March 3, 1845. Its an interesting story and its bewildering to realize two grandsons of the president who presided over the event are still alive.

Besides being the day Florida entered the Union, March 3, 1845, was the last full day that John Tyler served as president. That was exactly 169 years ago, but despite all that time passing, two of Tylers grandchildren are still alive.

Tyler is probably best known for being the Tyler Too of Tippecanoe and Tyler Too and for being the first vice president to become president through the death of the incumbent. Having said that, Tyler had a tumultuous presidency that was very far from dull. With William Henry Harrison dying a month into his presidency, Tyler faced mass defections from his Cabinet and was a man without a party after he vetoed the Whig proposal to restore the Bank of the United States. Trapped between the Democrats on one side and the Whigs on the other, Tyler was often in political no mans land despite having some talented political allies like the brilliant South Carolinian Hugh Legare, who served as Tylers attorney general, and William Cabell Rives, aprotegeof both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

While Tyler hoped to lure Texas into the Union, his proposals and plans were often hindered by the actions of the State Department -- namely two of his secretaries of state: Abel Upshur and John C. Calhoun, one of the most important politicians of the early 19th century. Upshur, a talented legal theorist and political thinker, was killed -- along with Navy Secretary Thomas Gilmer -- in a horrid accident when a cannon misfired on the USS Princeton during a cruise, with Tyler and with much of Washington society present. Long Island businessman and political leader David Gardiner was also killed in the accident -- which leads to how Tylers grandsons are still alive.

In the Princeton accident, President Tyler helped escort Julia Gardiner, a lovely belle he was courting, off the ship. They were married a few months later (strangely enough Calhoun, who had taken Upshurs place at the State Department and was not exactly the warmest of men, helped the bride cut the cake). She was 24, while President Tyler was 54. Despite the vast difference in age, the Tylers were very happy and he even made a return to politics, winning a seat in the Confederate House of Representatives before his death in 1862. They had seven children -- including David Tyler, who served in Congress during the 1890s, and Lyon Tyler, who was president of William and Mary.

Still, as trivia fans are increasingly aware, two of Tylers grandsons are still alive. For this history major who had planned to do his senior thesis at Trinity College on Calhoun's tenure in the Tyler Cabinet (I ended up doing it on Calhoun's tenure in the Monroe Cabinet, so let me offer a belated apology to President Tyler) and did his master's thesis on Edmund Ruffin, a fan of Upshur and adviser and friend to Tyler, it's a reminder of how young our nation really is.

As for Florida, it became a state after much political maneuvering and negotiations. With James K. Polk ready to move into the White House, Tyler had a busy few days before leaving the presidency on March 4. The 1844 presidential election was focused on Texas which had been an independent nation for almost a decade. The likes of Upshur and Calhoun, both of whom were advocates of slavery, looked to add the Lone Star Republic to the nation to expand the peculiar institution and keep Great Britain out of the region. Opponents of the expansion of slavery, like John Quincy Adams, fought against it. While the Senate did not pass a treaty with Texas adding it to the nation, a resolution to annex it passed on March 1.

Florida was part of an influx of four states entering in the mid-1840s. Iowa was also admitted on March 3, 1845, but it would not become a state until 1846 after arguments about its boundaries. Texas and Wisconsin would also quickly join as states. With the Missouri Compromise still being in place, leaving the same number of members from the free-states as from the slave-states in the Senate, the regional balance was being preserved with Florida and Texas balancing Wisconsin and Iowa.

Not all went well for Tyler as he looked to finish his presidency in a blaze of glory. For the first time in American history, Congress overrode a presidential veto (concerning federal ships) on March 3, 1845.

Between the new states, the Texas annexation and the veto being overridden, Tyler presided over one of the most dramatic ends to a presidency in American history -- and out of it Florida became a state.