Veeps, Vacancies and the 25th Amendment

I do believe that most people are familiar with the history surrounding the four assassinations of our Presidents; Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy. Some people may not realize however that we have had four other Presidents, who have also died while in office; William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren Harding and Franklin Roosevelt. I thought that it might be interesting to present a little history about what happened when these men died and also a little bit about some of our Vice Presidents.

The original Constitution (Article II, Section 1, Clause 6) was very vague concerning who should become President in these cases. Many argued that the Vice President should only fill the position as an Acting President until Congress appointed a new President. From the wording of the Article, I would probably have agreed with their argument. (Keep in mind this is just an opinion, I am not a politician; never have been and never will be.)

The first time this issue surfaced was in April of 1841, when William Henry Harrison died shortly after taking the oath of office. His Vice President, John Tyler, immediately took over the office and assumed the role as President of the United States. He did this seemingly without the authority to do so, however, although there were cries from many who disagreed, he was never formally challenged; therefore he set a precedent for succession which we still follow today. An excellent book in my library by Edward Crapol, "John Tyler, The Accidental President", provides a wonderful read for this time in our country's history.

So here stood this great Republic for all these years without a formal method of replacing any President who was removed from or died while in office. It wasn't until 1967 that the 25th Amendment to our Constitution was ratified and procedures were established to do just what John Tyler did back in 1841. The 25th Amendment takes care of a couple of other areas as well. It also dictates that the President shall fill a vacancy in the Vice Presidency, if one exists, and it provides the means for transferring, temporarily, the power and duties of the office of the President to the Vice President, in such cases when a President becomes incapable of discharging his duties.

For eight dead Presidents, we had no official means or methods established to designate the successor to the office. Another interesting note in this period of history, we have had seven Vice Presidents, who have also died while in office, every time leaving the office vacant until the next election.

The first time that a Vice President died while in office takes us back to our 4th President, James Madison. Madison served two terms and had a different Vice President for each administration. Both of them died while in office. George Clinton (no relation to Bill), who was also the Vice President under Jefferson in the previous administration and one of only two Vice Presidents to serve two Presidents, died of a heart attack in 1812 at the age of 72. Elbridge Gerry (he of Gerrymandering fame), was Madison's second Vice President and he died a year and half after assuming the office.

Franklin Pierce's Vice President, William Rufus DeVane King, suffered from tuberculosis. Consequently, he became the only member of the executive office to ever take the Oath of Office while on foreign soil, while he was recuperating in Cuba. He died about a month later.

President Grant's Vice President in his second administration, was Henry Wilson from Massachusetts. Wilson had a stroke while working in the Capitol Building and died 2 years into his term.

The 5th Vice President to die while in office was a Hoosier. Thomas Hendricks was Grover Cleveland's running mate for his first term and he died 8 months after taking the oath of office.

In 1899, William McKinley's first term Vice President, Garrett Hobart, became the 6th Vice President to die while in office. This opened the way for Theodore Roosevelt to be nominated as the Vice President during McKinley's second term and to ascend to the Presidency upon McKinley's death in 1901.

The last Vice President to die while in office was James S. Sherman. He served as Taft's Vice President until just days before the next election. (By the way, Taft was not reelected, but it wasn't Sherman's fault, you can blame that on Teddy Roosevelt.)

So, in all 7 of these cases, the office of the Vice President stood vacant until the next election. Also, in 1832, John Calhoun, the only other Vice President to serve under two Presidents, found it much too difficult and unpleasant to work directly for the second one, Andrew Jackson. Consequently, he resigned and ran for the Senate, which left the office of the Vice President vacant again.

Since the ratification of the 25th Amendment in 1967, no President or Vice President has died while in office. However the Amendment did get called upon for use when President Nixon's Vice President, Spiro Agnew, resigned in disgrace because of bribery charges. Then just 8 months later, Nixon also resigned because of his part in the Watergate scandal and his lying and the fact that he was just generally a creep. When Agnew resigned, Nixon nominated Gerald Ford for Vice President and then when Nixon resigned, Ford became President. Thanks to the 25th Amendment, Gerald Ford became Vice President and then President of the United States without ever winning an election. When Ford ascended to the Presidency, he used the Amendment to nominate Nelson Rockefeller for the Vice Presidential vacancy.

This Amendment has also been used several times when Presidents have had to undergo surgery and the Vice Presidents were officially appointed Acting President during this temporary incapacitation. The succession issue surfaced several times throughout history, but it was the Kennedy assassination which caused Congress to act. When Kennedy was first shot, some wondered what would happen if he survived but remained brain dead in a coma for an indefinite period of time. Would Johnson ascend to the office or merely be an Acting President? The Constitution was quite vague about these issues and they needed to be addressed.

When President Garfield was shot, back in 1881, he lingered from July until September before he succumbed to his assassin's bullet. His Vice President, Chester Arthur, never assumed the duties of the office until Garfield died.

President McKinley, lingered for a week, but Roosevelt was not placed in an Acting status, nor did he assume the role of President until McKinley died.

One of the most interesting issues concerning the health and disabilities of a President occurred during Woodrow Wilson's second term. His Vice President was another Hoosier, Thomas Marshall. Marshall was a very intelligent man, but his keen sense of humor was too much for the staid old character of Wilson. Marshall,listening to a filibuster about what this country needed while presiding over the Senate, bent over and said, "What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar." He was pretty much ignored by Wilson for most of the two terms they served together. In October 1919, Wilson suffered a major stroke and was confined to his bedroom. Common sense should have dictated that Marshall be made Acting President, but the President's wife and his closest advisors wouldn't even allow Marshall access to see him. The country was basically run by the First lady during these last 18 months of his term. Marshall once told an amusing story about his time in office, "Once there were two brothers; one ran away to sea, the other was elected Vice President and nothing was ever heard from either of them again."

So there you have it folks, a little history about Veeps (that's a media term used for Vice Presidents), Vacancies and the 25th Amendment. If you didn't know anything about this part of our history, well, now you know just a little. If you already knew all of this, I'm surprised you're still reading.

"The man with the best job in the country is the Vice President. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, 'How is the President.'" - Will Rogers