Tyler became President when W.H. Harrison died only a month into office, in 1841.

The Whigs eventually ejected Tyler from the party because he stood firm for states' rights, on Constitutional grounds. The conservative Whigs dissolved into irrelevance and were replaced by fire-eating radicals - the Republicans. When the Civil War was all but inevitable, Tyler lead a hopeless compromise movement. This was the last official gasp for the former Whigs.

If only the Whigs had survived...