Tyler, Julia

▪ American first lady

née  Julia Gardiner 

born May 4, 1820, Gardiners Island, New York, U.S.

died July 10, 1889, Richmond, Virginia

      American first lady (June 26, 1844–March 4, 1845), the wife of John Tyler (Tyler, John), 10th president of the United States. For eight months she presided over the White House with charming exuberance.

      Julia Gardiner, the daughter of David Gardiner, a lawyer and state senator, and Juliana McLachlan Gardiner, enjoyed a privileged youth in Long Island, New York. She was educated at home and at a private girls' school in New York City. Always known for her beauty, she shocked her family and their friends in 1840 by lending her likeness to a department store's advertisement that only slightly veiled her identity by calling her “the Rose of Long Island.” A hastily arranged yearlong trip to Europe removed her from the ensuing scandal.

      In late 1842 Julia made the first of several visits to Washington, D.C., where her father's political connections ensured her introduction to many powerful people, including the recently widowed President John Tyler. The following year Julia and John agreed to marry, though her parents objected to their 30-year age difference. In 1844, during a presidential excursion on the naval frigate Princeton, a large gun exploded and killed Julia's father, as well as Secretary of State Abel Upshur. The tragedy diminished her family's resistance to her marriage, and she and John wed in a private ceremony in New York City on June 26, 1844, the first time a president married while in office.

      During her tenure as first lady, Julia entertained in high style and became very popular. She initiated the custom of having the president greeted with the anthem “Hail to the Chief,” and she hired her own agent to enhance her coverage in the press. Unlike most of her predecessors, she did not avoid politics, and she devoted particular effort to gaining congressional approval for the annexation of Texas (a goal that was achieved before John Tyler's term concluded in March 1845).

      The couple retired to John's plantation near Richmond, Virginia, where Julia gave birth to seven children. (John Tyler fathered 15 children, more than any other president, including 8 with his first wife, Letitia.) The Tylers' finances were strained by their large family but mostly by Julia's extravagant spending on elegant clothing, expensive carriages, a boat, and travel.

      In 1860 the sectional crisis worsened, and secession of the Southern states seemed imminent. John initially favoured a moderate course, but he later altered that stand, and both he and Julia became ardent secessionists. John was elected to the Confederate Congress during the Civil War (American Civil War), much to the delight of Julia, who had published an essay defending slavery in 1853.

      After her husband's death in 1862, Julia left Virginia to join her mother in Staten Island, New York. There she continued her pro-Confederate activities, working with a Copperhead group to send food and clothing to needy Southerners in zones occupied by Union troops. This effort alienated her from her only living brother, David Lyon Gardiner, a staunch Union supporter. The estrangement hardened, leading to a four-year legal battle over their mother's estate. Julia also had to sue for the return and restoration of her Virginia estate, which had been looted and damaged by Union soldiers. She sold it in 1874 for a fraction of its prewar value. Worried by her financial predicament, she lobbied Congress for a federal pension for presidential widows. In 1880 she was granted $1,200 annually, and in 1882 Congress passed legislation granting her and other presidential widows an annual income of $5,000. She died in 1889 and was buried beside John Tyler at the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

Betty Boyd Caroli

Additional Reading

A short overview of her life and importance is Melba Porter Hay, “Julia (Gardiner) Tyler,” in Lewis L. Gould (ed.), American First Ladies (1996), pp. 117–129. The most complete biography is one she shares with her husband: Robert Seager II, And Tyler Too: A Biography of John & Julia Gardiner Tyler (1963, reissued 1989). Some of her letters are included in Lyon G. Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, 3 vol. (1884–96, reissued 1970), by a son of Julia and John Tyler.

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