IKE the other presidents from Virginia, John Tyler had a noble ancestry. He came into the world with an impetus of good blood and brain power, and came into good social surroundings. He was rocked in the cradle of intelligence; breathed the atmosphere of culture; and warmed in his infancy at the fire of patriotism.

His ancestors were among the early English settlers in Virginia and were of the same social standing as the Washingtons, Lees, Wythes, Madisons and Harrisons. It is understood that they were decendants of the celebrated Walter or Wat Tyler, of the fourteenth century, who led an insurrection in England, in defense of the rights of the people.

The grandfather of the president, John Tyler, was marshal of the colony under the British crown for many years, until his death, which did not occur till after the troubles occasioned by the Stamp act. He died possessed of a large estate of land in and about Williamsburg, which put his family into good financial circumstances.

The father of the president, John Tyler, again took an active part in laying before the king and parliament the grievances of the colonies, and in seeking relief therefrom. He became a

distinguished patriot; was speaker of the house of delegates, governor of the state, and judge of one of the highest courts.

At the opening of the war of 1812, President Madison made him judge of the court of admiralty. In February, 1813, he died, full of years and honors, leaving three sons; Wat, John and William, to bear on his name and continue his work for home and country.

BIRTH AND BOYHOOD.

John Tyler, the president, was born in Charles City county, Virginia, March 20, 1790, just after the adoption of the constitution, in the second year of Washington's administration. He was among the early children of the young nation and had wrought into his nature something of the spirit of which it was born. His parents and the people of their community were flaming patriots. His early life, at home, at school, and among his playfellows, was a growth among patriotic influences. The great names of his state were the great names of his country, and they became familiar to his youthful ears. The history of those great times was the conversation of the older people among whom he was reared. He was a precocious child, grew quick and ripened early-too precocious for great permanent strength, breadth, and stability of mind. His quick nature absorbed the opinions and the character of the life about him; before he had time or knowlege to know why he had accepted the political biases of his associates. His plastic mind filled quickly the mould which others made for it.

His early education was in the schools of his neighborhood. He moved on rapidly, and at twelve years of age entered William and Mary college. Of course the preparation was but a boy's preparation, and indicates both his extreme brightness, and that the requirements of the college for entrance were not such as are now made by all colleges. He graduated at seventeen, at about the age at which bright, well-fitted boys ought to enter. The subject of his address at his graduation was "Female Education." It would be interesting to read it now and compare it with the advanced ideas and practices of our time on

that subject, yet from the nature of his mind, we may infer that he had advanced views, though no chronicler has preserved them.

Young Tyler studied law two years, from seventeen to nineteen, under the instruction of his father and Edmund Randolph, when he was admitted to the bar. He at once began practice, and in three months there was scarcely a disputable case on the docket in which he was not retained. He became a youthful legal prodigy. Everybody who went to court must have the boy lawyer to lead him through the intricacies of law. John Quincy Adams was four years in getting any practice, while John Tyler was overrun with practice in four months. Later in life the difference was the other way.

POLITICAL CAREER.

At twenty, our brilliant, youthful lawyer was proposed as a candidate for the legislature, but declined. The next year, when twenty-one, he was elected. He at once entered actively into the business and political interests of the state and the times. By absorption he was a Jeffersonian. The great interests of the South, as they were understood about him, were held sacred by those of that line of politics.

The second war with England came right on, and he supported it with enthusiasm. He was a zealous advocate of Mr. Madison's conduct of the war. While the British forces were in the Chesapeake bay, Mr. Tyler raised a volunteer company and strove to organize the militia of his neighborhood and enlist them against the invaders, but they were driven out before his plans were consummated, and his military genius failed of development.

He was re-elected to the legislature for a number of years, and stoutly maintained the principles of the party. Among its teachings was the doctrine of the "Right of Instruction," which was that when a state instructed its members how to act on a given subject, they were under obligation to obey the instruction, even against their personal convictions. This matter came up anew while he was in the state legislature. Messrs. Giles and Brent were senators in Congress from Virginia, and had been

instructed by their state legislature to vote against a renewal of the charter of the United States bank, when it should come up. Mr. Brent disobeyed. Mr. Tyler then introduced a resolution of censure against the self-acting senator, making a strong speech in favor of the resolution, and laying it down as a principle that any person accepting the office of senator from the state of Virginia obligated himself to conform to this rule. It afterward came in his way.

In 1815 Mr. Tyler was elected as a member of the executive council, and served until the autumn of 1816, when, after an excited election, he was chosen to fill a vacancy in Congress. His opponent in this contest was Andrew Stevenson, a politician of the same school. When he took his seat, in December, he was twenty-six and a half years old. The next year he was re-elected by a strong majority. In 1819 he was elected again.

In Congress he was a strict partisan of the southern democratic style; maintained the high states rights doctrines; the federative notion of the union; the pro-slavery doctrines of the South, which sought to extend the slave territory and power. He took an active part in the debate on the Missouri question, maintaining with great zeal the southern side, as though it had been the side of patriotism, of right and humanity. He voted to censure General Jackson for his abuse of his authority in the Seminole war; opposed a protective tariff, internal improvements by the general government, and a national bank. He was over-zealous in his promulgation of the doctrines of his party and section of the country, and broke down his health; so he was obliged to resign and retire to his country estate to recruit.

In the fall of 1823 he went again to the Virginia legislature. In his state legislature he urged internal improvements by the state, and introduced bills to this end. He lost no opportunity to magnify the state; appealed to state pride and cupidity to introduce improvements of every kind into the state by state authority and at state expense. He was chagrined that other states were surpassing Virginia in population, wealth and enterprise, and he sought to remedy the evil by state improvements.