Tyler vs. Lincoln

The desks of Virginia's House of Delegates blossomed with a small white pamphlet one morning lately before the members began arriving for their daily session. The Speaker glanced at the copy on his own desk, read for a moment in astonishment, delivered a peremptory order. Pages hustled up and down the aisles confiscating the leaflets, which were entitled:

"Confederate Leaders and Other Citizens Request the House of Delegates to Repeal the Resolution of Respect to Abraham Lincoln, the Barbarian."

It was the sort of thing that is bound to happen every so often south of the Potomac, where old hearts still harbor a bitterness elsewhere forgotten. The incident summarily dealt with by the Speaker would have attracted small notice but for one factor: among the contributors to the pamphlet was Lyon Gardiner Tyler. Onetime (1888-1919) President, now President Emeritus, of William and Mary College, Dr. Tyler is a son of John Tyler. John Tyler was tenth President of the U. S. Since the death of Robert Todd Lincoln (TIME, Aug. 2, 1926), Dr. Tyler is the oldest living son of a U. S. President. That he should join in an attack on a President beside whom his father is historically a dwarf, was not without interest.

Reason for Son Tyler's anger at the memory of President Lincoln is not far to seek. President John Tyler entered the White House in 1841 upon the death of President William Henry Harrison, hero of Tippecanoe. His hand-me-down administration, unlike that of Calvin Coolidge, contemporary prototype, was very unhappy. He had been placed upon the Whig ticket to catch Democratic votes in the South. His own Democratic tendencies, consistently displayed, made him hated by the party which he nominally headed. He retired from politics, embittered, when his term ended, and did not appear in public life again until the days of Secession, when he championed the Southern confederacy.

The "resolution of respect" to which Son Tyler objected was passed in February when the Virginia House of Delegates adjourned in honor of Lincoln's Birthday. Dr. Tyler's contribution to the pamphlet of protest was a letter written by him to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It said:

"I write with no purpose of challenging the motives of the members of the House or unduly criticizing their action. On the contrary, I feel certain that that body was largely influenced by the desire of showing that spirit of forgiveness and conciliation which are so honorable to human nature and characteristic of Christian forbearance and teaching. . . . Nevertheless, I think, with all due respect, the action of the House was a great mistake. There is such a thing as excess even in kindness. . . .

"The resolution of the House appears based upon the idea that Lincoln would, if he had lived, have prevented the horrors of reconstruction." Dr. Tyler advanced two reasons for doubting this: 1) the manner in which Lincoln waged war, involving the wholesale destruction of lives and property; 2) "the instability of his character, which made him incapable of standing up against any real opposition."

Other contributors to the pamphlet, which was edited by President Langbourne M. Williams of the Southern Churchman Publishing Co., were Sergeant Giles B. Cook of Matthews Courthouse, Va., only surviving member of General Lee's staff, and G. W. B. Hale of Rocky Mount, Va. They indicted Lincoln on many a charge, including the following:

That he was a "deep-grounded infidel."

That "there was nothing abnormal in his career save his well-known heretical views on the authenticity of the Bible."

That he "grossly annulled the Constitution."

That Lincoln's admirers "have produced no special act of greatness performed personally by him."

That he "adopted and favored a policy of exterminating the Southern people by the most cruel and merciless measures and means."

That he was shot by John Wilkes Booth because he had hanged a Confederate naval officer, John Y. Beall, "against all civilized rules of warfare."

That "by his misconduct and brutality in office he forfeited all right to respect from self-respecting, intelligent Southerners."