John Tyler Autograph Letter Signed on the 1861 Peace Conference - Thanking the Willards for Hosting the Failed Effort to Preserve the Union

Former President John Tyler, presiding officer of the last-ditch Washington conference to avert conflict, writes of “the late Peace Congress” on March 21, 1861, just three weeks before the attack on Fort Sumter and the outbreak of the Civil War

ALS, one page, 7.5 x 8.25, March 21, 1861. Addressed from Richmond, a handwritten letter from John Tyler to J. C. & H. A. Willard, in full: “I affix my signature to the resolution of the late Peace Congress expressive of its thanks to you for your great liberality and kindness – and tender you assurances of my sincere good wishes.” In fine condition, with an archivally repaired tear to the right edge, passing through the end of the signature.

John Tyler had presided over the Washington Peace Conference of 1861, an extraordinary last attempt to resolve the sectional crisis before the outbreak of the Civil War. Convened on February 4th at Willard's Hotel, the conference brought together commissioners from 21 states to formulate a constitutional compromise capable of preserving the Union. Tyler was chosen to preside, but ultimately opposed the conference's final resolutions, believing that they failed to provide sufficient protection for slaveholders in the territories or a means of restoring the states that had already seceded. Nevertheless, as presiding officer, he formally transmitted the convention's proposed constitutional amendment to Congress on February 27th. The proposal failed in the Senate shortly thereafter and never came to a vote in the House. Tyler's February 27th transmission is preserved in the Congressional Serial Set.

This letter was written from Richmond only three weeks later, after Tyler's position had shifted decisively toward secession. On February 28th, the day after the Peace Conference adjourned, he publicly encouraged Virginia to leave the Union; as a delegate to the Virginia Secession Convention, he also spoke against the conference's resolutions as inadequate to resolve the sectional crisis. Here, however, Tyler attends to one final piece of unfinished business from the failed peace effort, adding his signature to the conference's resolution thanking J. C. and H. A. Willard for their “great liberality and kindness” in hosting the proceedings. The letter thus forms a striking epilogue to Tyler's role in the Peace Conference: written by its former presiding officer from Richmond as he was advocating a course that would soon place Virginia within the Confederacy. Virginia voted to secede on April 17th, less than a month after this letter and days after the attack on Fort Sumter; Tyler would subsequently serve on the Virginia committee that negotiated the state's union with the Confederacy.