Pointless Presidential Pfacts #45 - "THE TERM OF RESIGNATIONS"

It had been 141 years since a Vice President of the United States resigned the office.

On October 10, 1973, the vice presidency had become vacant for the second time because of a resignation. It had been vacant because of death 7 times, the last being James Sherman in 1912. While Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency the following year would be a first for that office, it would not be for his second-in-command. When Nixon chose a running-mate in 1968, he chose a little known governor, Spiro Agnew, instead of a star that would take attention away from the top of the ticket. What Agnew did bring was that attack dog persona and while a moderate in the GOP appeased conservatives and southerns, since he was from Maryland. Nixon hoped Agnew would resign before the 1972 reelection so he'd be easier to replace with Nixon's preferred vice president, John Connally, the guy that also got shot, but only wounded, on November 22, 1963.

Spiro Agnew of Maryland. 39th VPOTUS.

Agnew was reelected VPOTUS with Nixon in 1972, Nixon had deal with his decision from 1968 for another four years, or would he? When Baltimore started cleaning up corruption, investigations led to corruption in the Governor's Office, the former governor turned vice president of the United States. Nixon eventually got his wish, but he got it too late. Agnew resigned in the first year of the second term, 1973, and became the first vice president to resign because he faced criminal charges, among them bribery and tax evasion.

With Agnew's resignation, there was a vacancy in the vice presidency for the first time since the States ratified the 25th Amendment in 1967, just 6 years earlier. Nixon became the first president to appoint a vice president, not including nominating conventions, but because the Constitution says so. However, by the end of 1973, Nixon was not as popular as he was just a year prior when he won one of the biggest landslides in presidential history. Watergate continued to grow from a piece in the Washington Post in June of 1972, to investigation of the president and threat of impeachment if he does not comply. Nixon had to choose someone that was not going to divide the country any more than his administration had achieved by covering up the Watergate scandal and no cooperating with the Congress. Connally, a Democrat turned Republican, would not be a favorite for Republicans in Congress, both the House and the Senate, for fear of Nixon's removal would put a scalawag in office. Nixon was in no position to get what he wanted.

Gerald Ford of Michigan. The soon-to-be 40th VPOTUS on the cover ofTIME magazine in October of 1973. (later the 38th POTUS)

Less than 2 months after Agnew's resignation, Gerald Ford became the first appointed vice president after both houses of Congress confirmed him on December 6, 1973, the Senate confirmed him over a week before the House. The new vice president, "a Ford, not a Lincoln", easily won the votes because he was a moderate and a nice guy. He served in the House of Representatives for 24 years and only sought to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives, one-half of the leadership of the Legislative Branch of the United States, the Congress. Instead he'd have to settle for the other half, the vice presidency, which is also, the President of the Senate. The 40th VPOTUS would go on to be the 38th POTUS after the 37th resigns in August of the next year. Connally and Agnew, almost became president, but politics, and the law, came into play as it always does.

Now more than ever, but really this is from 1968.

The ticket of Nixon/Agnew won the 1968 election in one of the closest elections and won reelection in a landslide only Roosevelt 32 and Johnson 36 had accomplished. The ticket of Nixon/Agnew would not last the full second term, and become the only ticket to resign before the term expired...so far, of course. (2013) History showed that John C. Calhoun's resignation was not a one-time occurrence, just a rarity.

Calhoun, resigned for different reasons. Calhoun and Agnew share nothing more than being known for their resignations. While Agnew had a short rise from Baltimore County Executive to the Vice presidency in just six years, Calhoun is an American political legend. They both were southerners, but Calhoun was from South Carolina and not a border State like Maryland. They didn't get along that great with their Chief Executive. While Nixon tried his best to avoid Agnew and realized, when it was too late to replace him, that Agnew was not smart enough for the job of Commander-in-Chief (so avoiding him, is a great way to prep him for the job). Calhoun did not get along with his President either, Andrew Jackson. And Jackson wasn't even Calhoun's first President. He was the second VPOTUS to serve two presidents. Calhoun won election to the vice presidency in 1824, when he was on both John Quincy Adams' ticket and Jackson's ticket. In that uncertain election, the House of Representatives chose Adams to be the president while Calhoun easily won enough Electoral Votes to win the vice presidency. He won reelection to the office when Jackson ran again in 1828, but wouldn't be around by election day in 1832.

John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. 7th VPOTUS.

Calhoun was proponent of States' Rights and limiting the power of the Federal government, which rankled Jackson. The president even threatened to go to South Carolina and hang Calhoun. Calhoun would eventually resign to win a seat in the Senate where he could do more against Jackson than as his Vice President, a weak and powerless office at the time. Martin Van Buren would be put on the bottom of the ticket in '32 and win election with Jackson. Van Buren would then gain Jackson's approval as his heir-apparent in the 1836 election. Van Buren easily won.

Unlike Agnew, Calhoun would continue his illustrious career defending the peculiar institution of slavery, illustrious to southerners, not those in favor of progress like the Abolitionists, while serving in some capacity in the Federal Government of the United States. Agnew would go into political obscurity and really only reappear at Nixon's funeral in 1994, three years before his own death. Because of Nixon's resignation in 1974, Ford's elevation to the presidency created another vacancy in the vice presidency. Ford appointed Nelson Rockefeller to his recently vacated office. The Ford/Rockefeller Administration became the first where neither the president or vice president had campaigned for the offices. From then on, there would be no vacancies in the vice presidency...so far.

the 4th Day of July, in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the Two Hundred Thirty-Sixth

We are an interesting people.

236 years ago a group of people from a hardly united group of colonies took on the strongest military force on the planet simply by declaring themselves independent of King George III's government back in good-old England.

The fifty-plus representatives of the 13 American colonies didn't just wake up on July 4, 1776, and told the King to f-off. They didn't even sign the document until August. The lack of representation in the far away government across the Atlantic Ocean spurred the freedom spirit which would continue to grow through the decades and centuries that would follow. The people of the colonies didn't want taxation without representation, which the King allowed.

That kind of tyranny would not be allowed to continue by the colonists and after 8 years the new independent country defeated the big guy on campus...I mean on Earth. Now independent of a far away government, those former colonies turned United States had to govern themselves. The 13 colonies had already been doing that on their own before the Revolutionary War. During the war, by 1781 the Continental Congress created the first government which recognized the colonies as a country separate from Britain. But the Articles of Confederation wouldn't work for the new States. It lacked a strong central government.

By 1787, the Articles of Confederation needed to be replaced. Once again the American people were tossing aside a form of government, but just like last time they would need to replace it with something that could work. A far away government would not work without representation and a centralized government needed strength to work...without forgetting the States aka the People.

The Constitution would take effect in March of 1789 and continues to the present. This new government would unite the States with a strong centralized government, while sharing responsibility and power with the States which created it. This sharing of responsibility and power would be done in good faith and that is why the centralized government would become known as the Federal government. The word federal has it roots in the Latin word meaning to have faith and trust. The People have been content with their government since. A government created by representatives elected from the masses. A People's Government. Oh sure there have been arguments here and there, slavery, voting rights, war. But the People haven't given up on this government.

States succeeding from the Union had been threatened and acted upon over the years. Since 1865 those threats have been tampered down, sure a 21st Century governor or two have mentioned it. The Civil War from 1861-1865 was the People's second government's biggest challenge. Where as the Articles of Confederation, written in 1776 and ratified in 1781, did everything on the fly, the Constitution was 72 years old in 1861 and had confronted numerous things over the years from expansion in size to fighting wars small and large scale...still excluding a lot of non-white males, but still trying for that perfect union. The government of the people, by the people, for the people, did not perish from the Earth, but continued on trying to perfect itself.

As 1865 grew farther away, those formerly united States became more and more united. Just as nationalism was on the rise in Europe, those united States became the United States. The People created the government in 1776, its existence and power challenged in the first half of the 1860s, and then it failed to help blacks the recently freed slaves. The government moved forward turning away from civil rights but growing industrially and as a world power. By 1898 with a victory in the Spanish-American War, the United States would have territories not on the North American continent. Just as the nation grew industrially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it would grow in military and political might.

But we the People did not complain. If we did complain the voices of the minority were quieted by the voice of the majority. Welcome to a democracy. But this democracy kicks butt when tyranny is imposed on people whether it's the Revolution or World War II. The foreign wars of the early 20th Century would bring to question rights domestically in a government created by the People. 1945 was far from 1776, but while the US fought for freedom abroad minorities, particularly Blacks, were treated as second class or rather segregated citizens. Their voice was not heard in their government, just as the colonist's voices were not heard in that far away government of King George III's in the 18th Century.

Since the US became the leader of the Free World (the Slave World being led by the Evil Soviet Union. mwhahahahahah!!! ah...the Cold War, while scary in reality a classic covering all genres in stories of heroes vs. villains) after saving the planet in twice from Germany. (And twice from Iraq). Freedom was going to be our thing and it was something we had been doing since declaring it way back in the 70s...of the 1700. It would take television to show the nation the division along racial lines, as well as using the government the People created to help its very own.

The second half of the 20th Century, the People would use this government to help advance their cause, thus creating sharp political divides pro-this and pro-that. The use of the Civil War Era written 14th Amendement's Equal Protection Clause, the People's government was going to hear your case. The government had become more powerful over the years and sure it took almost a hundred years after the Civil War, but the government started standing up for all its people. There would be some that hate the righteousness of the Federal government whether it was Civil War or Civil Rights.

While the times and issues have changed, the country created 236 years ago still moves forward. The People struggle with the idea of government which they created 225 years ago (ratified 223 years ago). As Ronald Reagan said, "The era of big government is over" no wait that was Bill Clinton. While Reagan's election was a revolt on the New Deal and Great Society liberalism, he increased the size of the government with the rise in military spending...but that helped us end the Cold War. Woohoo!!! USA! USA! USA! Now that's some nationalism. The Clinton/(Al)Gore administration shrank the size of government...the administration that succeeded Clinton/Gore increased the size of government. However when the size creeps into the personal lives some citizens get upset and blame it on liberalism. From the 1930s until Reagan's election in 1980, FDR and LBJ's signature legislation defined the nation and some believed a nanny government.

What seems to be forgotten is that big government liberalism ended with 70s...of the 1900s. Liberals and Democrats have moved on and know that big government doesn't work. While some seem to believe the battle rages for small government verse BIG government, but it seems more like no government verse common sense governing using the government that has grown over time. So those that want no government, think back to the Spirit of '76 (aka the Spirit of 1776) when they declared themselves free of a tyrannical far away government. Those rebellious colonists created a provisional government to rebel against the king and once they defeated that king they had to learn to live among themselves and after one set of rules failed another replaced them and have worked near-perfectly since making sure that We the People live somewhat happily ever after.