Pointless Presidential Pfacts #31 - "Let's Clear Things Up with the Vice Presidency"

The following words were added to the Constitution with the 25th Amendment after its ratification on February 10, 1967:

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Before that it was unclear if the vice president of the United States became the president or an acting president. After the first death of a president in office, William Henry Harrison, on April 4, 1841, John Tyler stepped up and took the oath of office. The Tyler Precedent was followed by Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson.

The amendment's second section clarified what to do if there is a vacancy in the vice presidency. Whenever a vice president became president, like those listed above, or died in office or resigned, the vice presidency remained unoccupied. Six years after the passage of the amendment, Spiro Agnew became the second vice president to resign from office and Richard Nixon used the new amendment to fill the office. Gerald Ford became the first vice president appointed to the office, after approval by both Houses of Congress. Less than a year into the office, Nixon became the first president to resign the presidency making Ford the first president of the United States never elected to either office. Once president, Ford appointed Nelson Rockefeller to the vacant office of the vice presidency. So from 1974-1977, the POTUS and VPOTUS were appointed office holders.

The third section of the amendment also allows the president to transfer power to the vice president, if the president is unable to perform the duties of the office. President Ronald Reagan did so with Vice President George Bush and President George W. Bush did it twice with Vice President Richard Cheney. Previously this should've happened with Presidents James Garfield, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Woodrow Wilson, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, but there was no amendment then, of course. To transfer power, the president must write a declaration of of the transfer to the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, both relinquishing the powers of the office to the vice president and then resuming the duties of the office.

The final section of the amendment has never been put in to effect. President George H.W. Bush calls it a legal coup since it requires the vice president and a majority of the cabinet to declare the president unfit for office. The movie Air Force One shows the vice president and cabinet with section 4 of the amendment as a backup plan while the president is held hostage by terrorists, but the plan is never used.

Today in POTUStory

Finally after 178 years under our current Constitution these words were written into the great document:

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

And that was just the start.

Before 1967 the Constitution never specified what exactly would happen if something happened to the president of the United States. For the first time on April 4, 1841, a president passed away. The nation's 9th chief magistrate, William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural address in the depths of winter on March 4th of that year. The oldest man elected to the office to that point (Ronald Reagan would later hold that title) decided to give his long address without a top hat or overcoat. The 68 year old president died 30 days (or 32?) later of pneumonia.

William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States

Hay dios mio! What do we do?

The 10th vice president of the United States, John Tyler, found out the next day that President Harrison had passed away. The Constitution said:

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President

What did devolve mean? It was unclear and the Founding Fathers made it unclear intentionally or unintentionally. But Vice President Tyler took it to mean that he would become the president of the United States.

John Tyler, 10th Vice President of the United States and 10th President of the United States

On April 6th he took the oath of office and the reigns of power. The cabinet, which Harrison appointed, tried to deny Tyler the authority of the presidency. Tyler made it clear to them and his detractors in the Congress that he was the president of the United States, not Acting-President or the Vice President in the role of the presidency until some kind of special election.

The 10th vice president went on to become the 10th president.

Vice President Tyler being informed of the death of President Harrison

The Tyler Precedent would be followed by Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson. The Tyler Precedent would go on to be written into the Constitution as the 25th Amendment. Gerald Ford would be the first to be elevated thanks to the 25th Amendment. Ford would also be the first to be appointed vice president due to a vacancy.


House Minority Leader Gerald Ford being sworn in as the 40th Vice President of the United States

The 25th Amendment would also make sure that there would never be a vacancy in the vice presidency. Whenever the vice presidents succeeded to the presidency, died in office, or resigned leaving the vice presidency vacant it would remain so until the next election and then inauguration.

The acknowledgment that the vice president becomes the president is the first thing mentioned in the 25th Amendment and has taken effect only by Gerald Ford's ascendancy. Filling the vacancy is the second part of the Amendment which has only occurred twice, Ford replacing Spiro Agnew after his resignation in 1973 and Nelson Rockefeller's appointment once Ford succeeded President Nixon in 1974. The third section of the Amendment allows the president to inform the President Pro Tempore and the Speaker of the House that he or she cannot perform the duties of the office and transmit the powers to the Vice President to perform them as Acting President and can reclaim the powers once he or she informs the two leaders of the Congress. Ronald Reagan did this in 1985, making Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush the first Acting-Presidnet. While Dick Cheney held the title twice during the George W. Bush administration once in 2002 and then again in 2007.

The final section of the 25th Amendment has never taken place. George H. W. Bush calls the fourth section a legal coup. The vice president and a majority of the cabinet officers are needed to declare the president unable to execute the duties of the office. The closest we've come to this is in the feature film Air Force One when the vice president played by Glenn Close is presented with a letter readied for her to sign initiating the Acting President status under the fourth section of the 25th Amendment. She tears it up at the end of the film once the president is safe from the Russian terrorists and no longer in danger.


Air Force One movie poster

It took the threat of a nuclear age for the line of succession of vice president to president to be clearly written into the Constitution. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, the vice presidency remained vacant. Where as before then no evil or dangerous threat really harmed or threatened the country as succession slowly took its time. But in the post-Cuban Missile Crisis United States immediate succession took precedent.

The Vice Presidency - The American Prince

Long ago, in a time far away the loser of the U.S. presidential election won something. The Vice Presidency.

Back in the day at the start of our nation's second government under our current Constitution, the person, or man at the time, with the second most number of electoral votes became the vice president. This meant that men of exceptional caliber who sought the presidency, if they lost, would end up in the vice presidency.

In the first and second contests, the Electoral College unanimously elected George Washington president and in both contests John Adams received the second most number of votes. However in our nation's third contest, John Adams ran for president and Thomas Jefferson ran against him. While Adams claimed not to be a part of the Federalist party, Jefferson ran against him as the anti-Federalist. Our nation's first partisan election. The end result was Adams as president and Jefferson as vice president. The first of two times where the president was of one party and the vice president was of another.

Vice President John Adams

By our nation's fourth election which for the only time pitted the incumbent president versus the incumbent vice president, the idea of having same-political party president and vice president was taking hold. Teaming up with politically minded allies was to avoid the results of the 1796 election, however this idea quickly backfired. Jefferson ran to be president with Aaron Burr as his vice president. The two tied in the Electoral College.

The Constitution kicked in and the House of Representatives determined the outcome of the election 36 ballots later with Jefferson the winner of the presidency and Burr his vice president. So as to avoid this confusion as to which candidate was running for which office the 12th Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1804 before that year's election. It established that the electors would vote separately for both the president and vice president, thus diminishing the office and the caliber of those who sought the office.

Our nation went from vice presidents like Adams and Jefferson to men who never achieved their status or reputation. There were controversial vice presidents like John C. Calhoun, our second vice president to serve two different presidents and the first to resign from office. While Adams and Jefferson may have been of two different political philosophies during the third presidential term starting in 1797, Andrew Jackson certainly dealt with an unruly Vice President Calhoun who preached succession over the right to nullify laws of the federal government.

Vice President John C. Calhoun

Calhoun's successor, Martin Van Buren, would be that last heir apparent vice president to go on to become president until the late 20th century. Van Buren's own vice president, Richard M. Johnson, would become the first and only vice president elected through the senate because of an affair with a slave. Johnson's successor to the vice presidency, John Tyler would go on to establish precedent which would later take the form of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, that is becoming president of the United States upon the death, removal, or resignation of the office holder.

Men would be nominated and elected to the office of such importance that never compared to that of our first two vice presidents. Some were put in the office to balance the political party's ticket geographically, ideologically, or politically. One was even put in the nomination of vice presidency to shut him up politically, Theodore Roosevelt was the man.

William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt

No vice president who succeeded to the presidency through the death of the president went on to election in his own right, until Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was put in the vice presidency as a way to control him, but once he ascended to the presidency all that changed. In 1904 he ran for election in his own right and won. So did the other vice presidents turned presidents through death of the 20th century, Coolidge, Truman and Johnson; with Ford, succeeded through a resignation, losing in a very close election.

The importance of the vice presidency was becoming apparent. It obviously wasn't realized until the passage of the 25th Amendment, but the nominees were becoming more than a balancing act. Richard Nixon was the vice president to Dwight Eisenhower and began to take on more responsibilities than his predecessors. His presence was well known by the time he joined the ticket. He rose up fast from representative to senator to vice presidential candidate. The Cold War was in its infancy by the time Nixon made it to Washington in 1953. Fear of war struck the American people and the health and safety of the man with the trigger for the nuclear bomb was of greater importance than ever before. OMG! Russia has a bomb! When Eisenhower suffered a heart attack, Nixon comforted the nation and letting the country and the world know that everything was under control in the United States. Once Eisenhower returned from respite, Nixon continued to be a face of American leadership. The line of succession showed its importance more than ever.

The president following Eisenhower would be the first president assassinated in the United States since 1901, and is also the first president lost under Secret Service protection. John F. Kennedy's death on November 22, 1963, would be the last president assassinated while in office and elevate Vice President Lyndon Johnson to the presidency. JFK's death and a vacancy in the vice presidency during the Cold War would reveal the dire need for the office of the vice president to never be vacant.

On February 10, 1967, the 25th Amendment to the Constitution passed the number of States necessary for approval. It confirmed the Tyler Precedent which John, whom the precedent is named after, established after President William Henry Harrison became the first president to die in office. No longer could there be a vacancy in the second most powerful office in the country. This section would kick into gear rather quickly.

When for the second time in our nation's history, the vice president of the United States resigns, it is also the first time the 25th Amendment begins. Spiro Agnew stepped down for reasons not connected to Watergate, Nixon's problem, on October 10, 1973. By October 12th, Nixon nominates Republican Minority Leader of the House Gerald Ford. After the Senate and then the House voting in the majority, Ford was sworn in as vice president on December 6 of that year. He was the first vice president never to campaign for votes of the American people.

The new second couple on the cover of Time magazine, December 17, 1973.

Then on August 9, 1974, after Richard Nixon became the first president to resign, Ford became the first president never elected to either the vice presidency or presidency. Soon after swearing-in, his top priority was filling the vacancy of his prior office. Nelson Rockefeller became the second man to be appointed vice president.

The importance of the office was becoming apparent. By 1974 Congress finally got the vice president a permanent Washington home with the Naval Observatory. Ford, set on moving in, became president before the family could move in. Rockefeller only used it to entertain, the man's a Rockefeller, he's already got a mansion. Walter Mondale became the first Second Family to live in the Vice President's Residence. Mondale also showed the importance of the vice president as a leader in the Executive Branch.

The Vice President's Residence

Jimmy Carter ran as a Washington outsider, showing he was from anything and everything but Watergate. He was governor of the state of Georgia and he defeated an incumbent president, albeit dealing with the legacy of the Vietnam War and Watergate. Carter needed someone with knowledge of the game, and he chose a well known senator from Minnesota.

The role of the vice president was becoming important as politicians sought, or unsought, the nomination. Candidates who they themselves sought the higher spot on the ticket were being considered as number two. Lyndon Johnson was one in 1960 and George Bush in 1980. Reagan, like JFK, chose a rival for the top spot to fill the other half of the ticket. Bush had a larger foreign policy resume than the western governor. Bush like Nixon, would assume the role of an acting-president. This idea, similar to Nixon in the 1950s when an acting president was needed due to the health of the incumbent president, also become a section of the 25th Amendment. It has only been used twice since George Bush. Richard Cheney would act as president twice when George W. Bush went in for surgery in 2002 and 2007.

The other section of the 25th Amendment, involuntary withdrawal, has yet to be used. Although it came close in the 1997 film Air Force One, it hasn't happened in the real world.

With the exception of James Danforth Quayle and the nomination of Sarah Palin, the seriousness of the office has been taken into consideration when seeking a candidate for the second spot. The nation's 45th vice president in 1993 showed an increase in importance and responsibility for the nation's number two. It certainly increased beyond any expectations when the 46th VPOTUS, Cheney, succeeded Al Gore in 2001.

Aside from the increase in power from Gore to Cheney, there was another difference between the two vice presidents. Since the days of Nixon the incumbent vice president was seeking the top of the ticket when it was his time. Hubert Humphrey tried it in 1968 and just like Nixon in 1960 and John C. Breckinridge in 1860, they all lost. Incumbent Vice President Bush won the top job, the first sitting VP since Martin Van Buren in 1936, and the last. Gore tried to do what Bush did and run for president. While Gore received more popular votes than George W. Bush, he did not win the Electoral College which determine the winner.

Gore had that desire to run for president. Prior to being nominated for the vice presidency in 1992, he made a run for the Democratic nomination in 1988. He lost. But a youthful man and vice president he was. He had the ambition, desire, and opportunity to run for the nomination in 2000, just as Bush in 1988, Humphrey in 1968, and Nixon in 1960. However the idea of the VP thinking about his own political future rather than the vision of the president reeked of possible situations no different than the Adams/Jefferson administration of 1797. People with different agendas. A divided government within the Executive Branch.

Cheney's selection of himself as George W. Bush's vice president put a new light on the role of the vice president. This man was not looking for anything in his political future. The vice president would help, or simply, run the show. Cheney did not want to be president and was not planning on running at the end of the administration. His decision created the first time no incumbent POTUS or VPOTUS ran for a party's nomination since 1928. Sure Herbert Hoover was part of the incumbent administration as the Secretary of Commerce, but far from the elected posts of president and vice president in 1928.

Whether or not the person seeking the nomination or becomes vice president, they remind the public they never want the job. When they get the vice presidency and then succeed to higher office, they were put there because we the American people believe that they will make a good steward of our country. Since it has taken us so long to realize the importance of the vice presidency, perhaps it is time to reevaluate the way we nominate him or her. Should the people have say or should the people allow one individual near dictatorial powers of appointing his or her choice? In 2008, half of the Democrats and independents, as well as Republicans, did not have their voice heard on the national ticket. Instead the number two spot went to someone who received a fraction of the primary and caucus votes. No matter what, Joe Biden, has the political resume to be a leader, and is a fine selection in this era of presidential-candidate's-appointing vice presidents. The Republicans allowed one man to select a woman with no real credentials for the job but whose only selection was because she was a woman. The conventions are only there to approve the anointment of the possible president, which is what the vice president truly is.

Maybe it's time for the second place person in the primary season become the vice presidential nominee, or allow for separate balloting of the presidential and vice presidential candidates. Maybe even friends running as a ticket in a primary season, but avoiding all the pitfalls that came of a similar scenario in 1800. The vice presidency always seems to be evolving, just like our great nation.

Expanding to Crisis

Thirteen colonies banded together to become an independent nation from Great Britain in 1776. Northern and southern colonies formed a union of States, united together for independence. Two different societies developed the industrialized north and the rural south, both with a common goal. After their revolution from Great Britain, these United States expanded westward beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Their territory increased and new states were admitted to the Union. These United States coexisted peacefully as northern free states and southern slave states, however the admittance of new states threatened the peace. The expansion of the United States and the addition of new states disrupted the sectional divide between the two regions plunging the nation into civil war.

Aside from the Declaration of Independence, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was one of the most important pieces of legislation passed by the Continental Congress. The ordinance established how our nation would expand westward, creating territories that would form new states and be admitted to the Union. The ordinance also banned slavery in the Great Lakes region, which established the regional divide between northern free states above the Ohio River and the southern slave states below the river. This political divide played out in the United States Senate as new states formed, with southern senators fearful that their “peculiar institution” of slavery would be destroyed.

The young nation expanded in the 1790s in both the northern and southern regions always maintaining that equal balance of power. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of our nation with the Louisiana Purchase. This allowed for the addition of new states to form and join the Union once the vast expanse of land was filled by westward moving Americans. This westward movement created the sectional crisis, as the expansion of slavery into the new territories came into question.

Missouri emerged as a state from the Louisiana Purchase. With the admittance of Missouri into the Union the balance between free and slave states began to tip. To balance the power in the Union, Maine was admitted as a free state. Maine was a non-contiguous part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This compromise of admitting one slave state and one free state stabilized the balance of power between the two regions. Another part of the compromise was the prohibition of slavery in the remaining northern territory of the Louisiana Purchase. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 maintained order in the Union, but the nation continued to expand.

The expansion of the nation and the admittance of new states threatened the balance of power. If the north out numbered the south in the senate then the way of life in the southern states might be threatened. The south did not want to lose their right to have slaves and did not believe that the federal government could abolish it. Maintaining an equal number of states in both regions protected them against the threat of the federal government interfering with their “peculiar institution.” The south felt the issue was a states’ rights issue. However slavery would not be the first issue that the southern states felt the federal government was threatening their states’ right.

In 1828 the sectional divide heated up not over slavery, but another states’ right issue. The southern economy, which slavery was a part of, relied on trade with foreign countries. The imposition of a tariff, or a tax, on foreign trade threatened the southern economy. Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina supported the idea of nullification proposed by his home state, which would allow states to null and void legislation passed by the federal government. It was a states’ right to do so. President Andrew Jackson thought nullification to be unconstitutional. Jackson loved the Union and wanted nothing more than to preserve the Union. Jackson threatened South Carolina with military force and believed nullification a treasonous act. In the end the state backed down and the Union was preserved, however the nullification crisis foreshadowed events to come.

By the late 1830s citizens of the United States were venturing westward filling and occupying the land purchased from France. Although one region in particular that was not apart of the Louisiana Purchase drew numerous citizens of the United States and that was Texas. Texas became an independent nation from Mexico in 1836 populated by an overwhelming amount of Americans. Texans fought for their independence and after winning sought annexation by the United States. If the United States were to admit Texas then the balance between free and slave states would be disrupted. Northern states did not want Texas admitted to the Union because they feared it would expand slavery, while the southern states welcomed the state. Just a few days before leaving office in March of 1845, President John Tyler signed the resolution annexing Texas as a state.

While Texas was a hotly debated topic for almost a decade, the issue of admitting it into the Union no longer became an issue by the time James K. Polk assumed the presidency in 1845. Aside from limiting himself to a single term in office, he committed himself to achieving four goals during his administration. Two of the goals were connected to the expansion of the Union, acquiring the Oregon territory from Great Britain as well as California and New Mexico from Mexico. Polk set out to turn the United States into a continental power, establishing a “manifest destiny.”

To achieve the manifest destiny of our nation Polk took us to war. Obtaining Oregon from Great Britain did not require a fight, but obtaining California and New Mexico would not be as simple. The Mexican-U.S. War lasted from 1846 to 1848. The Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo ended the war and expanded the nation all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The new territory gained from the treaty created the question of whether to admit states into the Union as free or slave.

The new territories which emerged from the war brought the balance of power between the two regions to a boil. Once again a compromise was needed. Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky proposed a number of measures which included admitting California as a free state; the territory of New Mexico would be organized without the prohibition of slavery; the slave trade was prohibited in the District of Columbia, while slavery was not abolished; and fugitive slave laws were strengthened. The compromise was opposed by President Zachary Taylor, however he died in 1850 and his successor Millard Fillmore supported it. This Compromise of 1850 tempered the crisis brewing between the north and the south.

While the start of the decade attempted to put the sectional crisis to rest it became just a stepping stone to the impending crisis. In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin became an important part the abolitionist cause and 19th Century American literature. The novel had an affect on attitudes toward slavery and the slaves themselves. The Missouri Compromise of 1820, which attempted to quench the slavery issue was repealed two years after Stowe’s novel was published.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 repealed the Missouri Compromise which sought to end the debate on the expansion of slavery. Now through popular sovereignty the settlers of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska were to determine if they were a free state or a slave state. The settlers of Kansas turned to bloodshed as northerners moved in to claim the territory as a free state, while southerners did the same but for pro-slavery reasons. The anti-slavery side eventually triumphed over the pro-slavery side, but once again this event was another foreshadow of things to come but on a larger scale.

As the nation expanded and the expansion of slavery grew with it, a political party emerged in 1854 in opposition to its expansion. The Republican Party formed in 1854 and by the presidential election of 1856 had its first presidential candidate on the ballot. However in the end John Fremont was defeated by Democratic candidate James Buchanan. President Buchanan continued the disorder that was maintained by the previous administration of Franklin Pierce. In 1857 the Supreme Court ruled on the Dred Scott case, stating that a slave was not a citizen and thus had no rights under the Constitution. The ruling intensified northern opposition to the expansion of slavery.

In 1858 an Illinois seat in the United States Senate gained attention as the two competitors for that seat debated for their party’s dominance in the Illinois state legislature, which appointed United State Senators at the time. Democrat Stephen Douglas debated Republican Abraham Lincoln. In the debates Lincoln said “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” The house represented the country and its sectional division of free and slave states. The Democrats won the election in Illinois returning Douglas to the United States Senate, while Lincoln gained national attention. The house divide was on the verge of collapsing.

In 1859 John Brown attempted to start a slave rebellion. Brown led an attack on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. He seized the federal armory and held the citizens hostage. The rebellion was squashed and Brown was hung. Rebellion was in the air, but not from the anti-slavery side.

Lincoln’s prominence in the senatorial debates propelled him to the Republican nomination for president in 1860 defeating party heavy weight William Seward of New York. The election of 1860 pitted Republican Lincoln against, against a fractured Democratic party. The southern pro-slavery Democrats nominated the incumbent Vice President John C. Breckinridge, while the northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas. A fourth candidacy came from the Constitutional Union Party, a party comprised of former Whigs and Know-Nothings. The Constitutional Union Party nominated John Bell. With the lowest popular vote percentage of any president ever and with only the electoral votes of the northern states, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States.

With Lincoln’s election, the south believed the anti-slavery party would abolish their “peculiar institution.” Before the year of 1860 was out the state of South Carolina seceded from the Union, an act deemed unconstitutional by President Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln. However Buchanan felt there was nothing he could do. Lincoln attempted to heal the wounds with his first inaugural address on March 4, 1861. The south ignored Lincoln and on April 12th attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Fort Sumter in Lincoln’s eyes was Union property; the war between the states had begun.

Two different regions, one free and the other slave holding, fought together to overthrow a tyrannical king. These United States expanded their territorial reach over the North American continent. Their expanse disrupted the peaceful sectionalism which existed in revolution. Compromises were made to maintain the peace as the nation grew. However expansion turned these United States into a house divided, long preventing it from becoming a more perfect union as the United States.