328 HARRISON, TYLER 



however, Mr. Tyler was one of those who thought 

 that it encroached too much upon state rights, and 

 in the state convention of 1788 he was conspicuous 

 among the opponents of ratification. He was one 

 of those, moreover, who believed that the assent of 

 Virginia to the Constitution could not have been 

 secured but for the belief of many of the delegates 

 that the right of the state to withdraw peaceably from 

 the Union, in case it should ever see fit to do so, was 

 not really surrendered. For the twenty years from 

 1788 to 1808 Mr. Tyler was judge of the general 

 court of Virginia, from 1808 to 1811 he was gov- 

 ernor of Virginia, and from 1811 until his death in 

 1813 he was judge of the United States district court 

 for Virginia. His son, the future President, was born 

 at the homestead at Greenway, on the 2Qth of March, 

 1790. In early boyhood he attended the small school 

 kept by a Mr. McMurdo, who was so diligent in his 

 use of the birch that in later years President Tyler 

 said " it was a wonder he did not whip all the sense 

 out of his scholars." At the age of eleven young 

 Tyler was one of the ringleaders in a rebellion in 

 which the despotic McMurdo was overpowered by 

 numbers, tied hand and foot, and left locked up in 

 the schoolhouse until late at night, when a passing 

 traveller effected an entrance and released him. On 

 complaining to Judge Tyler, the indignant school- 

 master was met with the apt reply, " Sic semper ty- 

 rannis/" The future President was graduated at 

 William and Mary in 1807. At college he showed 

 a strong interest in ancient history. He was also 

 fond of poetry and music, and, like Thomas Jeffer- 

 son, was a skilful performer on the violin. In 1809 



