(continuation) #10. John Tyler The Vice President of William Henry Harrison, John Tyler was the first President to enter office due to the death of an active President. And while this automatic replacement is tradition now, his assumption of this power was quite a source of contention at the time. Shortly after taking office, Tyler added to this contention by separating himself from his Whig party and refusing to support the majority legislation coming from either party. Although confident in his strict adherence to the Constitution and belief in states rights, he was unable to convince anyone else of this, and because so, was easily defeated in the next election.