In 1840, John Tyler's political career seemed to be over.
After his resignation in 1836, he had broken with Andrew Jackson's Democratic party, which had caused him to gravitate to their opponents the Whigs.
But Tyler didn't like much of the Whig platform either, which was dominated by Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky.
Clay considered one of the 19th century's most brilliant politicians was the champion of centralization, having been an architect of the Second Bank of the United States.
And when Andrew Jackson successfully killed it in 1836, Clay vowed that he would start another one.
1840 was the great chance for the Whigs to seize power and make Clay's dreams a reality.
The country had been gripped by an economic depression since 1837 and many blamed Democratic President Martin Van Buren and his party's fiscal policy for it.
At the party's nomination convention in Harrisburg, the Whigs eventually settled on General William Henry Harrison as their candidate for president.
But who would be his running mate?
Nobody seemed to want the job of being vice president and it isn't hard to see why.
